Ideal Factories

RIVA GmbH Engineering in Backnang is growing at a breathtaking rate. Its second production building with 15,000 m² floor area was completed at the beginning of this year, the third building is already under construction, the site for a fourth building has been staked out and the number of employees is to continue growing too. The uncluttered new building, designed completely in grey, houses large state of the art milling machines that produce elaborately decorated facade elements for palaces and mosques in Arabian countries – oriental ornaments, milled with German accuracy. For lifting the elements which may weigh several tonnes, and for in-house logistics, RIVA relies on a state of the art radio crane system supplied by Innokran and equipped with crane technology from STAHL CraneSystems.

Doors, gates, facades and balustrades, elaborate ornaments and gilded ceiling light fittings – RIVA Engineering in Backnang, Baden-Württemberg, is working flat out on the remodelling and extension of the Sacred Mosque in Mecca, to be completed by 2018. The four-leaf glass doors are up to 16 m wide – each of their leaves consists of glass elements weighing up to nearly 4 tonnes, framed by massive duplex steel profiles. RIVA is manufacturing large numbers of the decorative facade elements from heavy aluminium plates out of which the elaborate decorations are milled – with individual designs for each mosque and each palace. Production continues at full speed in two shifts, making great demands on in-house logistics and requiring cranes that operate efficiently and are always available.

Twelve overhead travelling cranes supplied by Innokran, with reliable crane technology from STAHL CraneSystems, are in charge of logistics in the production shop. “The customer set great store on an elegant production environment, as there are regular visits from important customers and delegations from the Arabian region to inspect prototypes or to get an idea of the manufacturing process,” as Christoph Fischer of Innokran, responsible for designing and producing the crane systems, explains. The cranes were painted an unobtrusive grey and have no visible festoon cable systems. Instead, the power supply systems along the crane runways and crane bridges were designed as elegant contactor lines.

RIVA wanted an off-standard feature, a power supply to each load hook to connect electrical equipment. “This wasn’t possible using conventional conductor lines, but we were able to meet the customer’s request with a 10-pole safety conductor line from Paul Vahle, so our crane bridges and the wire rope hoists get by without any cumbersome festoon cables,” as Christoph Fischer emphasises. Each of the twelve overhead travelling cranes is equipped with an 8 t SH wire rope hoist from STAHL CraneSystems. The cranes can be coupled in pairs via the radio remote control if large or particularly heavy elements need to be transported.

RIVA relies on premium technology from the region to ensure trouble-free material flow and minimise crane downtimes – the crane builder Innokran is based in Pleidelsheim, 20 km away, wire rope hoists and crane components are supplied by STAHL CraneSystems in Künzelsau, 50 km away. However STAHL CraneSystems’ SH wire rope hoists have already been used in Mecca, nearly 6,000 km away: when the Mecca Royal Clock Tower, at present the third highest building in the world, was built adjoining the mosque a few years ago, wire rope hoists from Künzelsau lifted facade elements and the enormous hands of the largest tower clock in the world.

“RIVA is working flat out, it’s essential for everything to work properly. The SH wire rope hoist from STAHL CraneSystems is a fast, low-maintenance and extremely reliable wire rope hoist and ideally suited to this demanding work environment,” says crane builder Christoph Fischer.

The cranes’ off-standard features include easily legible load displays which provide information on the load suspended from each wire rope hoist. Bright LED lights from RIVA’s sister company RIVA Lighting illuminate the work area underneath the wire rope hoists and ensure ideal working conditions. With this high-performance crane system, RIVA has its material flow under control and at the same time can present itself to its customers at its best.