Located in the administrative department of Saône et Loire, roughly 100 k from Lyon, the speciality of COMEGE, a family business with 50 employees, is the design and production of standard or customized lifting equipment for any type of industry. Set up in 1984, its range of activities at that time targeted sheet metal manufacturers. 1992 marked the year when the range of products widened to include jib cranes, gantry cranes and lifting beams.

LEVELEC, based at Vaulx en Velin near Lyon, is a specialist manufacturer of EUROPONT overhead cranes (standard and customized) together with associated runways. Another of its specialities is the repair and routine maintenance of lifting equipment and the company has belonged to VERLINDE’s official after-sales servicing network since it was set up in 1974.

COMEGE has a permanent on-site stock of parts used for its most frequent operations providing it great reactivity to the requirements of customers. 60% of production is currently consecrated to catalogue-listed equipment and 40% to customized equipment. The whole production is for the resale trade.

A new 11,000 m2 building had to be equipped

To meet their increasing need for more significant production resources, COMEGE in 2018 decided to consolidate its production facilities in a new building measuring 11,000 m2. The location of production and design / engineering on the same site is a big advantage for the company. "The skills of our design and engineering department are widely acknowledged due to close collaboration with the production workshop and this lasts throughout the manufacturing process. It is also a reliable and conscientious point of contact for our sales partners. " declares a COMEGE source. To fit out the new building, COMEGE called upon LEVELEC of EUROPONT to make and deliver 11 overhead cranes equipped with VERLINDE lifting equipment. The order was divided into three types of cranes with loading capacities of 2 tonnes for a span of 15 m, 5 tonnes and 6.3 tonnes for a span of 25 m.

Negotiations started in March 2018, well before the construction of the building. There were therefore no assembly constraints. COMEGE expressed its wish for environment-friendly equipment. With this in mind, LEVELEC suggested VERLINDE’s EUROBLOC VT range of wire rope hoists for loads of from 800 kg to 80,000 kg. These hoists have motors with variable speed drive that adjusts to fit the load. The system consumes energy focused on each load individually enabling substantial energy savings. This means a fast return on investment which was intrinsic to COMEGE’s specification sheet.

Very rapid shipment and assembly

The project was given the green light in June 2018 with funding that integrated environmental concerns. The equipment was installed in September 2019 following the construction of the building enabling production start-up in January 2020.

The cranes were transported and delivered on site in no more than 24 hours in September 2019. A special convoy was organized for the purpose. Installation was successfully completed with no difficulties encountered. The production facilities currently operate as planned.