In just a few years, Proplate has become the world’s leading producer of straps for the crane industry. Liebherr, Manitowoc, Sany and Fuwa are just some of the well-known customers in Europe, China and the US.
World leaders in straps
Straps are absolutely crucial components in crane manufacture, particularly for crawler cranes that can often lift loads of up to 3000 tons. The straps connect counterweights and frameworks. The quality demands are high, nothing can go wrong, which is why the tests are rigorous. The straps can be anything from 1 to 16 meters long and 10 to 70 millimeters thick, depending on construction. They can be single
straps, or joined together in twos or threes. The biggest strap we have made to date weighs 1.5 tons, and the longest is 16 meters.
Quality steel is fundamental to success
To ensure consistent high quality in Proplate Straps, we only use the highest quality materials. The Proplate strap factory is right next door to SSAB in Oxelösund, eastern Sweden. SSAB is a world leader with its special Weldox steel, which is ideal for making straps. We also work with other plate suppliers such as Thyssen, Dillingen and JFE. Proplate has invested heavily in cutting and machining equipment so that we can deliver the highest quality straps. A quenched and tempered steel that is intended to return to its original shape after severe strain is hard to handle – especially when producing long straps that can easily twist or curve when being cut from a plate. Proplate solves this problem by cutting under water to ensure there is as little heat impact as possible on the steel, which in turn makes for straighter, more easily handled straps. The latest investments are machines that make holes in the straps with extremely fine tolerances. The machines are also specially adapted for making straps as efficiently as possible, so while one strap is being machined new ones are being loaded, ready to be fed through and machined.
Proplate means efficiency
To ensure the greatest possible efficiency, Proplate works closely integrated with the customers’ production processes and MPS systems. Long-term forecasts govern the procurement of plate and planning of efficient plate utilization. By applying the Proplate Totalcut Concept, plate utilization can be improved the more items and greater the volumes handled by Proplate.
