No one wanted to do it; they said it was impossible.

As one of Australasia’s largest fibre-based packaging manufacturers, with 10 facilities throughout New Zealand and Australia, Oji Fibre Solutions Packaging is a serious player in the manufacturing space. We guarantee you’ll have encountered their paper and cardboard solutions, paper cups, and specialty boards in your home, work, or out and about. 

Oji Packaging came to us hoping to replace the steel structure supporting a kind of recycling silo on their site where cardboard scraps and off-cuts would be shredded and reduced for re-use.  As we discussed their challenge, a few key things became apparent.

Firstly, the structure was in desperate need of repair. Being a steel structure exposed to the elements, the signs of rust and wear showed that it had reached the end of its natural life and the risk of failure was increasing. Secondly, they’d approached a handful of structural steel companies to replace or repair the frame – but they’d all declined; the job was virtually impossible to do well, they said. Finally, the silo had to continue operation during any works – and with the volume of dry, fine cardboard and paper particles around the area, hot works were completely off the table for fear of fire. 

Fortunately, we could provide a solution that would overcome all these challenges with modular aluminium designs.

We started our work on the Monday, installing legs through the roof to rest on the portal framing, then running some inside works to ensure we had a robust base to work with. With the silo still running, we relied on scaffolding to support the structure so that, on Tuesday, we could install the bottom parts of custom aluminium framing and run it as high as we possibly could.

On Wednesday, we coordinated a crane and HIABs, lifting the still-running silo by a matter of millimetres so that we could remove the steel and fix in our aluminium without the need for hot welding. This was a dawn-to-dusk operation, with a team of eight experts ensuring that we could undertake the most difficult part of the project quickly and safely. On Thursday, we returned to add in new Monkeytoe walkways and handrails, removing all the legacy steel hardware and taking a moment to reflect on this amazing project.

It took some serious coordination – lining up crane drivers and HIABs, a significant team of operators and a four-day window of good weather – but we couldn’t have asked for a better outcome for Oji Packaging.