How We Fabricate Obsolete Pins Overnight
It is Friday evening at 17:00. A vital Associated British Ports cargo crane suffers a sudden mechanical failure at the dock side. A pin is jammed deep within the jib end of the crane’s boom. With three commercial ships sitting idle at the dock awaiting discharge, everything comes to a standstill. Every hour of delay costs the port operator thousands of pounds. To make matters worse, most engineering contractors are clocking off for the weekend, or they quote multi-week lead times for overseas OEM replacement parts.
Our 24/7 Flat Rate Promise
We do not believe in supply chain excuses or leaving clients stranded over a weekend. We deploy our emergency team directly to the dock. Because we operate under a strict 24/7 Flat Rate Promise, the port authority knows we charge the exact same rate regardless of the hour or day. A Friday night call-out or bank holiday emergency costs the same as a Tuesday afternoon. There are no out-of-hours fees and if your site is within 20 miles of our base, we guarantee an engineer on site within 90 minutes.
In-Situ Machining on the Boom
This was not a simple parts swap. Removing a seized pin from the boom of a massive quayside crane requires on the job experience to avoid damaging the surrounding bearings or structural housing. Using our portable machining equipment, our engineers performed highly accurate in-situ line boring directly on the crane boom. We bored out the defective pin to a depth of 300 millimetres. This precision work allowed us to safely dismantle the surrounding assembly and rush the worn components back to our fully equipped Grimsby workshop.
Overnight Rebuild from Scratch
While other firms were sleeping, our traditional machining team worked through the night. When original parts are obsolete or carry long lead times, we manufacture them from scratch to bypass the supply chain. Using our in-house lathes and milling machines, our workshop team, including skilled engineers like Shaun Polley, reverse-engineered the damaged components.
Within just twelve hours of the initial emergency call, our machinists had precision-turned a brand-new EN24 steel pin with a 140 millimetre head and a 120 millimetre bearing size. We drilled and tapped the ends, milled the keep plate slots, and drilled the grease ways to exact tolerances. Alongside the main pin, we manufactured two heavy-duty bearing shields from thick EN8 steel, turning the outer diameter and drilling the required pitch circle holes to accept new screws.
Back in Service by Saturday Morning
By keeping every stage of the fabrication and machining process in-house, we eliminated third-party delays. On Saturday morning, our team returned to the dock, reassembled the assembly, and got the Gottwald crane safely back to work. The backlog cleared, and the ships sailed on schedule.
We never shy away from a job, no matter the scope. Whether you are dealing with a jammed pin on a dockside crane, a broken excavator boom, or a seized industrial gearbox, our team has the manpower and the workshop capacity to deliver. If you are struggling with a mechanical failure and cannot afford the manufacturer’s lead time, get in touch with Hickman Engineering today!
