SCAFFOLDING INTERNATIONAL
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INTERNATIONAL
MARCH-APRIL 2014
compacted concrete loads in
accordance to the specifications of
the project.
Also on growing safety
concerns for projects, scaffolding
solutions are extensively needed
to bear live and incidental
loads of the concrete reinforced
structures, precisely for elevated
railway platforms for new metro
and mono rail projects.
Know how
However, Indian scaffolding
manufacturers find contractors are
not always technically prepared
and do not have the load data
of the reinforced beams or slabs
that the scaffolding towers are
required to support based on the
requirement of the projects.
According to Mohammad
Yusuf, technical director, EMD
India, a major Indian scaffolding
manufacturer, “There is a large
PILOSIO NORTH AMERICAN CAMPAIGN
Italian Scaffolding manufacturer Pilosio is ramping up its efforts in the North American market targeting Oil & Gas in
Canada and the southern states of the USA.
The manufacturer was exhibiting at the ConExpo exhibition in Las Vegas USA in early March, where it laid out its plans to
expand in Ontario, Canada, with a new facility to complement its existing holding company there. Over the next two years
it will concentrate its efforts in that country.
However, Pilosio is also focusing on oil & gas producing states in the USA, including the 400 refineries between Texas
and Louisiana, for which it will offer maintenance.
Pilosio says its longstanding quick coupling rosette system is ideal for quick set up in the oil and gas sector where
downtime is very costly. The
company says there will be massive
growth in oil and gas over the next
five years, but claims at the moment
much of the scaffolding in the US
originates from China.
During the next half decade Pilosio
plans to take some of the $2.5 billion
annual North American scaffolding
market and increase its current
market share.
number of price-sensitive
contractors in India possessing
deficient data on the load of
the structures to share with us.
This creates a major challenge
for manufacturers to prepare the
appropriate scaffolding solutions.
Buyers in this category mainly
comprise stand-alone medium
and small contractors and smaller
subcontractors.
“To avoid construction hazards,
we always collect load data from
contractors for designing the
scaffolding units.This is further
checked with our own static load
calculations.”
Increased services support is
also now required by industrial
users in India. “Depending
on the given short plant shut
down periods, the buyers always
look for timely and appropriate
erection, assembling and
disassembling solutions for their
plant maintenance. We make
prompt availability of scaffolding
solutions once the order is
placed,” says Mr. M. Kumar,
director, Layer Scaffolding India.
Layer has supplied solutions
to Siemens, Torrent Power,
Gammon India and Paharpur
Cooling Towers Limited for
setting and maintenance of
cooling towers for thermal power
plants.
It has recently supplied
scaffolding units to India’s
largest private refinery, Reliance
Industries for maintenance of oil
storage tanks and combustion
units.
Mr Kumar adds, “We have
designed a customised scaffolding
solution for easy entry and exit of
the maintenance workers for the
Reliance job.”
Tata Steel, Ultra Tech Cement
and Indian Oil Corporation are
among the other industrial users
extensively using scaffolding
solutions for maintaining their
industrial facilities.
Workers safety is a major
consideration for industrial
buyers. Plant maintenance
operators look for firm scaffolding
platforms to stand, sit and work
on. However, there is a lack
of skilled scaffolding service
engineers in India to assemble
the base plate of the scaffolding
platforms, guard rails, anchorage
points and preparing easy access
and exit points based on the exact
requirements of the buyers.
“We are spending resources
to train our service engineers to
assemble and disassemble the
scaffolding solutions based on
the requirement of the industrial
buyers. Furthermore, we are
laying emphasis for stronger
coordination between our service
engineers and plant service
engineers,” Says, Mr Sharad
Rastogi, director, Scaff India, an
Indian scaffolding manufacturer.
EMD India has created a
separate business subsidiary
to provide dedicated services
support to industrial buyers for
assembling and disassembling.
AI
Bonnybrook Wastewater
Treatment Plant Headworks
Facility in Calgary. Pilosio
provides P300 formwork.
