Lee and Muirhead invest in a Goldhofer »Faktor 5« high girder bridge to transport generator stators in India.

»Faktor 5« for India: To help ensure that even the biggest power generation projects can be handled in this fast-growing industrial country in South-east Asia, the logistics company Lee & Muirhead Pvt Ltd. has invested in a »Faktor 5« high girder bridge from Goldhofer Aktiengesellschaft of Memmingen, Germany. This innovative solution from the house of Goldhofer is capable of carrying loads weighing five times its deadweight. That makes it the vehicle of choice for transporting ultra-heavy loads.

“In the next few years, more than thirty major refurbishment projects are scheduled in the powergen industry as the power stations no longer have the generating capacities needed today. Tomorrow’s power plants will be in the 660-to-800 MW range. We have to be prepared for these developments, especially with regard to the equipment required to transport the stators for the generators. They make very heavy loads, weighing anything between 350 and 450tons. With our new »Faktor 5« from Goldhofer, we are now ideally equipped to handle such projects with maximum efficiency,” said Pankaj Gadhia, CEO of Lee & Muirhead Pvt Ltd., at the official hand-over in Memmingen.

With a deadweight of 100tons, the »Faktor 5« high girder bridge can handle loads weighing up to 500tons. With load length in the 11–17m range and above, plus extremely variable axle configurations of 2×12 to 2×20 axle lines, the sky is the limit for transporting transformers, generators and other heavy industrial components. And »Faktor 5« really comes into its own for transport operations in difficult situations, e.g. on bridges and other load-sensitive structures and surfaces.

“Road transport regulations in India are particularly strict, and we need »Faktor 5« to be able to transport generators and stators the length and breadth of the country and deliver them right to the construction site. That is why we decided to call our new high girder bridge after the Indian god Hanuman: »Faktor 5« enables us to move mountains – just like Hanuman,” CEO Pankaj Gadhia explains. The monkey god Hanuman has enormous physical strength. According to legend, he carried a whole mountain on which medicinal herbs were growing from the Himalayas to a battlefield in order to treat the soldiers’ wounds. That is a fitting story for Goldhofer’s high girder bridge, which is used to carry ultra-heavy loads to wherever they are needed.

For Lee & Muirhead, the investment in a Goldhofer vehicle makes sense for another reason, too: “For a lot of heavy haulage operations in India, the use of Goldhofer axle lines is specified in the invitations to tender. Those with the wrong fleet simply don’t have a chance of landing a contract,” says Pankaj Gadhia.

The high esteem in which Goldhofer’s quality standards are held in Asia and the trust placed in its top-quality products are naturally to the liking of Stefan Fuchs, CEO of Goldhofer Aktiengesellschaft: “It’s great to see Lee & Muirhead investing in Goldhofer technology for the third time in ten years and to see them moving up into a wholly new league with the help of »Faktor 5«. The high girder bridge is the ideal complement to the company’s existing 38 THP/SL heavy-duty axle lines.”

“A high girder bridge from Goldhofer is clearly an enormous investment for us, all the more so as customers in India are not willing to pay the kind of money for logistics services that are normal in Europe, for example. Nevertheless, »Faktor 5« is worth every cent to us, also because we put safety and customer satisfaction first. This commitment explains why we always go for Goldhofer quality. That is our strong point and a USP over other logistics service providers,” says Gadhia.