A customer wanted to decommission a large commercial bakery and transport the components to Rotorua for temporary storage prior to reassembly and commissioning in Dunedin. Our brief was to fully label and document then disassemble and move the proover, oven and cooler.

The proover and cooler were skeletal frame type machines so each component was stamped and had a stamped stainless steel label wired to each frame component. The machine frames were modelled and drawn with all the component locations and label descriptions on the drawing. Once disassembled the proover and cooler components were palletised and transported to Rotorua.

The oven was large, measuring 16m in length and 4m in width and height. It was fully welded and couldn’t be moved or transported in one piece. Even in pieces a section of the factory wall needed to be temporarily deconstructed so sections of oven could be removed. Firstly, all the insulation was removed to allow access to the oven wall. Cutting the oven into sections required careful thought regarding where to make the cuts and how to brace the oven. Confined space entry was needed to cut sections that could not be accessed from the outside.

A vehicle ramp was created inside the factory as the factory floor was lower than the surrounding pavement and road. The longest section of oven was lifted and supported by two 20t Franna cranes. A truck was backed into the factory and the oven section lowered onto it to transport it out of the factory. To get the tallest section of oven out required removing air from the tyres on a low loader trailer and even then it just sneaked out of the building!

Transport to Rotorua required a category 4 piloted load, overnight transportation, road closures, power company assistance to lift power cables and cranage to place the oven components in their final position.

This project was completed in conjunction with two other parties. Concentric Engineered Solutions Ltd provided project management, documentation and site supervision, Matched Ltd supplied mechanical labour and Machinery Relocations Ltd provided transportation and logistics.

This project was completed in conjunction with Machinery Relocations Limited and Matched Limited.