Press release
Wetter, Germany

Demag Service for all German sites of the SMS group

  • Complete order for maintenance for nine production sites of the SMS group
  • Maintenance of 560 crane installations/hoist units
  • Impressive overall concept

Demag Service is to take over maintenance of cranes and hoist units at the German production sites of the SMS group. The machinery and plant builder has for the first time awarded the contract for the service work at its nine German plants to one company.

The SMS group consists of a group of international companies in the plant and machinery
construction sector for processing steel and non-ferrous metals. At the production sites in Germany, the group uses approximately 560 crane installations/hoist units that have load capacities ranging from 125 kg to 250 t for many lifting and transport jobs. In addition to its plants in Hilchenbach and Mönchengladbach, the SMS group has seven other production sites.

As part of its planned efficiency improvements, the SMS group has awarded the contract for mainte-nance of its entire lifting equipment to Demag Service. Besides carrying out maintenance at the legally specified annual intervals, the scope of work also includes assessment of risks, electrical safety in-spections and 24 h on-call standby.

Carolin Paulus, Vice President Global Services & Marketing, at Terex Material Handling: “We are delighted to be able to support our customer SMS group with our expertise over the next five years. Based on a comprehensive overall concept, our experienced Demag service spe-cialists will guarantee high availability of the crane installations. Our customer SMS group thus also benefits from high safety standards and can focus fully on its core business.”

The SMS group 

The SMS group covers the following product range: equipment for the steel, aluminium and non-ferrous metal industry, ranging from raw iron production, steel work technology, continuous casting technology for flat products and rolling mill technology, finishing lines for hot and cold rolled steel, steelworks and continuous casting lines for long products, pipe systems, section rolling mills, forging plants, copper and aluminium plants and drop forging plants, through to ring-rolling mills including the relevant heat technology, electrics and automation as well as the associated service.

Further information

Risk assessment (according to Sections 5 and 3 ArbSchG, BetrSichV Section 3) 

Employers are obliged by European and national directives (89/391/EEC and ArbSchG) to plan and implement all occupational safety measures necessary to safeguard the health of their employees.

A risk assessment serves to define risks in working areas or at specific workplaces and forms the basis for measures that have to be taken by the owner of an installation. Demag Service carries out these assessments for companies to cover the use of cranes and hoist units.

Safety inspection of electric equipment (according to DGUV Regulation 3) 

Companies are obliged to ensure that electric equipment is in a good operating condition ac-cording to DGUV Regulation 3, Section 1 (in Germany), before putting it into service. Electric equipment is regarded as safe if there is no direct or indirect danger of personal injury if it is correctly operated and used as intended. The safe condition includes any protection required against external factors. The inspection must be performed and recorded by a qualified electrician, taking all technical guidelines into consideration.