With thousands of tonnes of steel arriving annually by road and sea, the handling, storage and documenting of steel plate deliveries was an important preliminary step in the fabrication process. During the earlier years of yard operation plate would be offloaded, stored and re-loaded for delivery to the cutting shops using a combination of mobile cranes, trucks and labour. With the creation of a dedicated plate stockyard in the mid 1980’s which functioned using a rail mounted gantry crane and conveyor delivery system, the operation became less equipment and labour intensive.
The plate stockyard operation revolved around a diesel electric gantry crane which traversed a 400 m long x 60 m wide rail arrangement giving access to the substantial storage capacity required during periods high activity on the Yard. The plate inventory within the stockyard was controlled using a warehouse computer system linked to the crane which enabled plate receipts and issues to be co-ordinated and, records to be updated automatically. Plates issued from the stockyard for cutting and profiling were transferred from the crane onto a conveyor system for delivery into the Plate Cutting Shop.