When metal meets science

The European Spallation Source is under construction in Lund, southern Sweden. When completed in 2025, it will be a multi-disciplinary research facility based on what will be the world's most powerful pulsed neutron source. The facility's unique capabilities will enable scientists to see and understand basic atomic structures and forces at length and time scales unachievable at other neutron sources. This is likely to result in scientific discoveries in materials, life sciences, energy, environmental technology, cultural heritage, and fundamental physics.

Rocket science – almost

When it is up and running, the ESS will include the most powerful linear proton accelerator ever built, a five-ton, helium-cooled wheel made of bricks of a neutron-rich heavy metal, a suite of laboratories, and a supercomputing data management and software development centre.

The ESS is a unique initiative with very particular and special requirements for any partner. Not only did ESS need to find a partner that could steadily and continuously provide steel in all shapes and sizes, they also needed to find someone that could get this often odd-sized steel from A to B, on time, every time. Size, time and stability matters when you’re spending €1.843 billion (2013) on construction.

DFDS Special Cargo: connecting the metal industry to a comprehensive freight shipping and logistics network DFDS Special Cargo specialises in moving out-of-gauge cargo for the steel and construction industries. Shipments include everything from concrete walls and whole balconies to steel beams and other extended long products.

In the case of ESS, DFDS works closely with ESS partner and steel manufacturer Severfield to make sure hundreds of transports of structural steel make their way from the production site in the UK to the construction site in Sweden.

All the equipment and manpower you need

DFDS has a special fleet of equipment for handling oversized loads, including extendable trailers up to four metres wide and 40 metres long – that’s three times longer than standard-sized trailers. With 800 trucks at their disposal, all driven by DFDS employees, this provides comfort in a volatile industry like transport: DFDS can plan and manage the entire shipment, without being dependent on external parties that could pose a risk of delay.

DFDS Special Cargo is able to take responsibility for the entire delivery process. This is vital in building projects where the crew and crane are on site and ready to install the transported pieces, where everything needs to run like clockwork to move forward.

See for yourself: ESS on YouTube.