Rigging Rentals recently opened its brand-new, purpose-built MegaTest facility in Kenwick, in Perth’s south east, and invited industry partners and customers to both experience the company’s landmark event and explore its future capabilities.
Western Australia’s first dedicated lifting equipment hire company was born from humble beginnings in 2003. Rigging Rentals has a rich 20-year history of servicing customers with innovative heavy lifting and rigging solutions. General Manager Craig O’Dowd discusses the company’s heritage, the services it has offered over the years and how its new MegaTest facility has the potential to propel the company’s future growth and revolutionise Western Australia’s lifting industry.
“Like all small businesses you have to start somewhere, and Rigging Rentals began with the idea of servicing the lifting and rigging industry across the country with the option to hire rather than buy, offering world class products from leading brands, an objective that hadn’t been seen before,” said Craig.
“We started with a few fleet items and a shared workshop space, knowing that it would take time for the industry to appreciate the benefit of our products and services and how these could positively impact their businesses. We worked hard alongside our customers, we listened to their feedback, and we invested in the products we could see they needed for their projects.”
Customer service and satisfaction have been central to Rigging Rentals’ success, and by listening to customer feedback and by providing the right solutions, the business continued to grow. Continued investment in quality equipment, from leading manufacturers, attracted repeat business from customers, which enabled investment in an increased range of products, which attracted customers from different areas of industry with larger projects.
With experience in testing, inspecting, manufacturing and selling lifting equipment, Craig has been the General Manager of Rigging Rentals for 13 years and says he is ready to see the company take its next step.
“Over the last decade, the business has seen steady growth and the concept of renting lifting and rigging equipment has certainly gathered momentum over this time. A change in ownership structure in 2015 has enabled rapid growth and expansion to where the company finds itself today.
“This is our third major move to larger premises in the time I’ve been in the General Manager’s role,” said Craig.
This latest move is designed to facilitate further expansions into more diversified areas of the lifting and rigging industry. Rigging Rentals moved into the new facility with MegaTest, a business operating under the leadership of Rigging Rentals. MegaTest was established to fill a gap in the lifting and rigging industry when it comes to load testing of niche equipment such as spreader / lifting beams, winches, hoists and fabricated equipment such as baskets, cages and frames. Rather than having to hire mobile cranes and transport semi-trailer loads of test weights around town, testing can be completed much more efficiently using the overhead cranes and dead weights or slab anchors, all under cover and out of the elements.
The testing area of the new facility was nicknamed ‘The Sky Bay’ because of its imposing and colossal height. It features two 50-tonne German-made ABUS computerised cranes capable of synchronising for load tests of up to 100 tonnes. These overhead cranes operate alongside a large fleet of steel and water test weights and, true to the driving ethos outlined by Craig earlier, are designed to cater for customer requirements with almost any lifting solution capable of being tested in the facility.
“The ‘Sky Bay testing area’ is unique. Customers can visit and see what we are doing with their lifting solution, they will have input into the testing, we can discuss various scenarios for when it is out and lifting in the field,” said Craig..
“This is ‘next level’ customer service and we are now in a position to truly partner our customers with their lifting and testing requirements. They can now see how Rigging Rentals, in conjunction with the MegaTest Sky Bay facility, is offering a lifting, rigging and testing package unsurpassed anywhere in the country.”
Although still in its formative stages, Craig is keen to highlight the flexibility the facility offers and the open approach MegaTest will be adapting to anyone making use of the new testing centre.
“We’ll make additions to the facility where customers request them, and where we can see benefit. We are completely open and receptive to the requirements of our customers and this facility is designed to evolve as the industry evolves.
“For example, we can see that cranes are only going to get bigger and lifts heavier, which will lead to heavier lifting equipment and more complex lifting solutions. Our testing capabilities will continually reflect this evolution,” said Craig.
At the forefront of the MegaTest facility is the high bay, measuring in at 31.3m long by 13.3m wide, with a floor-to-hook height of 18.5m. The concrete slab is 1.3 metres thick, consisting of 1,355 tonnes of concrete and 47 tonnes of steel reinforcing. The slab-anchors embedded in the structure total 144, reflected in a grid pattern of 18m by 6m at one-metre spacings. Each slab-anchor is capable of withstanding 50t of force. Additionally, the MegaTest facility features dead weights ranging from 20kg through to 10t, a 16-tonne Kone forklift to assist with the handling of the dead weights and equipment for testing, and four 15 kilowatt air compressors in parallel.
“The MegaTest facility has dramatically increased our certified testing and servicing capabilities and we now have the capacity to further tailor solutions to the specific demands of our customers,” said Craig.
The Rigging Rentals and MegaTest facility provide the businesses with an ideal launch platform for its next stages of growth. This will include continued investment in inventory for the rental business and investment in the latest testing equipment with NATA accreditation on the horizon.
Rigging Rentals operates as a dry-hire company offering its services Australia-wide. Industries serviced include mining and construction companies, utility providers, shipping companies, defence contractors, engineering contractors, crane companies, offshore oil and gas and testing organisations.
The company offers water load bags ranging from 1 tonne to 55 tonnes to complete load-testing, especially for offshore oil and gas installations and local and remote land-based installations. With a large inventory consisting of spreader beams spanning from 1-1,000 tonnes, JDN air hoists from 500kg to 30 tonnes and a large fleet of load cells and round slings to 200t WLL, Rigging Rentals stocks more than 4,000 items.
“We see a lot of our air hoists go into the oil and gas industry working on offshore projects and we have one of the largest and broadest range of spreader beams available. You’d be hard pressed to find many other companies across the country with a 1000-tonne spreader beam,” Craig said.
With such a large inventory of stock and array of products, Craig says Rigging Rentals plays a central role in making the lifting industry more sustainable.
“For some projects equipment is purchased for one-time use, they buy cheap products and discard them immediately after the project is completed. A key focus for Rigging Rentals is to negate this practice. We possess large quantities of stock for our customers to hire, use on their projects, mark-up if they are damaged, and return to us. We don’t want to discard our assets; we want to maintain, regularly re-certify, and re-deploy them. Sustainability is an issue we need to address as an industry, not to mention the financial benefits that come with hiring as opposed to buying,” he said.
Working across a range of industries with each possessing their own demands and requirements requires a flexible attitude and service. Ensuring communication lines are constantly open is imperative to the success of Rigging Rentals, says Craig.
“We have always listened to our customers, and we will continue to do so. Their feedback is paramount and ensures we are investing in the right products and equipment for their projects today and for those in the future,” said Craig. “We work in a high-risk industry, and we all have responsibilities to each other. Rigging Rentals’ responsibility is to continually invest in quality products in the first place. MegaTest ensures the equipment is capable of managing the lift. Both are responsible for maintaining the product so it is always fit for purpose when it leaves our facility.”
Rigging Rentals would like to recognise the efforts and expertise of Built Ink and Alliance Engineering Consultants for helping bring the Megatest dream to reality and welcomes anyone to contact them to discuss how the Sky Bay can be utilised for their project.