We recently had a unique job with unique packaging requirements. A customer was in need of helical strakes to wrap around a tower. Strakes are helical flat bars that are curved the “hard way,” i.e. against the strong axis. This is the same type of bending process that is used for ribbon mixers or ribbon flights.
The job called for strakes to cover a tapered column. The radius of the tube gradually changed, and thus the strake pieces were all going to be different. However, there was a large number of similar tubes, and for cost purposes, all the same pieces needed to be made at once.
The customer needed to receive them clearly labeled, sorted and separated per tower as they were being dropped in the field. This led to logistical challenges between production and packaging.
A rubber stamping system was developed to clearly mark each piece. The pieces were then bundled together with 250lb tensile strength zip ties in the quantity required per structure.
Temporary workers were hired for the additional work load to build crates and pick each set of strakes. The clips that are being used to attach the strakes to the structures were counted and packaged inside the crates so everything was ready to be dropped at each work site. Working with the customer, Chicago Metal was able to package and ship per their needs in a cost-effective manner that greatly reduced their labor and saved valuable time in their production schedule.
