Volvo equipment demolishes Volvo factory as history comes full circle.
Having helped create thousands of machines over 175 years, the old Volvo Construction Equipment hardening plant in Sweden has been demolished using Volvo machinery.
Volvo Construction Equipment’s (Volvo CE) hardening plant was built 175 years ago, and in its heyday used to harden 3,000 tonnes of steel a year. Operations came to an end in 2006 when the company invested nearly SEK 1.1 billion to extend and modernize its main factory campus on the outskirts of the town. Since then, the old building has been mothballed and demolition of the site was ordered in 2013.
Demolition company AF Decom AB, began to cut out the interior and empty the structure using a Volvo EC460C-Series high reach excavator. About 10 tonnes of material was transported to Vafab Miljö in Västerås – a company that takes care of waste through safe and environmentally friendly methods.
“We have emptied the inside and taken care of the old materials,” says Peter Löwenhamn, project manager at AF Decom. “Our 85 tonne 27 meter-high Volvo EC460C-Series high reach excavator was rolled into the city and slowly drove up to the back of the building to start the work.”
“The building was so close to the Badminton Center we needed to get the outside wall to fall inward,” says Löwenhamn. “Safety is the most important thing and over the years our employees haven’t had a single day of sick leave because of a work injury. The building was close to schools and other buildings but you didn’t even notice the work was being done unless you looked directly at the site. The Volvo machine has great control and we were careful not to make a disturbance.”
The building’s old concrete blocks and bricks were sorted and transported for shipment – ready to be used in other construction purposes. The project is due for completion in February this year.
AF Decom is ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified and has high standards regarding quality, the environment, occupational health and safety, in line with Volvo CE’s vision and values.
