Top performance for top-secret project

2 cleanroom rail tracks, each with a load capacity of 750 kg and a track length of 5 meters.

2 highly complex cleanroom entry cranes, each with a load capacity of 8 tons and a span of 11.48 meters, with synchronized tandem operation of two cranes and four hoists, and semi-automatic positioning.

Cleanroom overhead crane with a load capacity of 6 tons and a span of 6.9 meters.

Cleanroom monorail system with a load capacity of 750 kg.

This report may seem peculiar to the reader: We are reporting on a cleanroom project at a location we are not permitted to name, for a client we are not allowed to identify, producing items we cannot specify. Yet, the crane specialists from Altmann in Albaching have achieved a performance that is noteworthy in several respects.

Overcoming technical challenges is actually nothing unusual in a highly complex operational field like the cleanroom industry. And when it comes to special requirements in crane and conveyor systems, Altmann's specialists are hardly ever rattled. Even the most unusual customer requests are diligently transformed into functioning solutions. The Albachingers are well known for this.

However, the present "case" pushed the project participants to their limits in certain phases. In reality, it was not the technical demands that caused the "Altmänner" to sweat and their blood pressure to rise. Rather, it was difficulties more related to interdisciplinary communication, planning coordination with other trades, and project management by the client.

Here is a brief overview: Altmann was involved in the project in summer 2022. By that time, the 60 x 30 meter hall was already built and, roughly speaking, finished. The entire technical building equipment was completed, which means that all filter systems, cooling units, electrical installations, air conditioning units, fire protection, ceiling lights, media supply, and other essentials for a cleanroom of this size had already been planned and partially installed.

Everything was neatly concealed behind suspended ceilings and wall panels, even the power outlets had already been planned. What was still missing were the ten (!) specialized crane systems, each to be configured differently. These required a solid steel support structure to be installed behind the finished wall panels for structural reasons.

Hard nut causing headaches

"Peanuts!", thought the experienced and stress-resistant project planners from Altmann. Until they heard that the existing plan could no longer be changed. That caused a short-term increase in pulse within the team, as heard in Albaching behind closed doors. But the Bavarians did not let themselves be discouraged by the infamous "bockshorn." They immediately set to work calculating and planning the ten different support structures in detail and cracking the tough nut presented to them.

Here is a brief summary of what was ultimately successfully installed:

The total of ten crane systems includes:

– 2 highly complex cleanroom overhead cranes, each with 8 tons capacity and a span of 11.48 meters, with synchronized tandem operation of two cranes and four hoists, and semi-automatic positioning;
– 1 highly complex cleanroom overhead crane with 2 tons capacity and a span of 5.9 meters, with pendulum damping and semi-automatic positioning;
– 1 cleanroom overhead crane with 6 tons capacity and a span of 14.6 meters;
– 1 cleanroom overhead crane with 10 tons capacity and a span of 14.5 meters;
– 1 cleanroom overhead crane with 6 tons capacity and a span of 6.9 meters;
– 1 cleanroom overhead crane with 6 tons capacity and a span of 5.5 meters;
– 1 standard overhead crane with 2 tons capacity and a span of 6.1 meters;
– 2 cleanroom monorails, each with 750 kg capacity and a track length of 5 meters.

The entire steel structure required for this amounts to 110 tons. Just from this list, it is immediately clear that this project is a major undertaking, completed within just one year to the full satisfaction of the customer. Someone will have a hard time replicating that at Altmann.

An additional challenge was that these systems had to be installed in several cleanrooms of different sizes, which were already completed. And since the client repeatedly changed the prioritization—i.e., the order of installation—the supplier Altmann had to react extremely flexibly. This was, among other things, a demanding task for the installers.

Indeed, here and there, "very wild things had to be planned in," and they indeed "approached the limits of feasibility." Sometimes existing systems had to be dismantled at short notice to install the new cranes, and then the existing systems had to be reassembled. The impact on project costs can be easily imagined.

"No matter how steep the mountain..."

Adding to this is the often disruptive flow of information across countless trades, and considering the complexity of such project management, one can imagine what was happening on-site and within the planning team at Albaching: constant time pressure, extremely high workload for the installers, and the exhaustion that comes with it. And all this during times of acute skilled labor shortages... A development that the management at Altmann is increasingly noticing in projects: nothing is certain except the deadline. The technology is developed far from the project site, collisions must be replanned, leading to high follow-up costs, delays, and frustration among employees who have been extensively trained and "built up" over years.

After about a year since the start of planning, the nut was successfully cracked, and the project was completed in summer 2023. In the typically Bavarian-positive manner characteristic of the company, Managing Director Achim Altmann looks back: "The good personal contacts on the construction site and within the project team, as well as the increasingly better cooperation with planners and executing trades during the project, were the bright spots that continually encouraged us despite the time pressure and changing conditions. It gave us the feeling that everyone was pulling in the same direction."

And no wonder, with such perseverance and problem-solving skills: the next orders or challenges—some even for the same mysterious client—are already on the schedule for the Albaching specialists.