When trust leads to major construction projects: industrial projects in Mexico

These projects include the modernisation of existing refineries and the construction of new ones, such as the Olmeca Refinery in Dos Bocas, the Ethylene 21 Pre‑Trochemical Complex, the Miguel Hidalgo Refinery, the BALAM TA2 marine platform, the PEMEX CA‑KU‑A1 Gas Compression Platform, and energy infrastructures in general, in which ULMA has taken part. In this area, although the star product is BRIO scaffolding as it allows for multiple configurations, formwork and falsework systems have been applied in new constructions.

These projects require a great technical, commercial, logistical, training, supervision and supply capacity for tons of products throughout the country. And this is only possible with a team of involved professionals such as the people who make up ULMA Mexico, whom we put a face to.

Miguel Ángel Flores, ULMA's Technical Coordinator and trainer, who has extensive experience in the application of scaffolding, talks to us about the service offered by ULMA in these industrial projects: "We work on the design of both minor and major maintenance projects for the various industrial plants in the country. The wear and tear on this type of facility is enormous as the production processes are continuous. The customer presents us with their needs, spaces and access at height and we offer them the scaffolding or formwork solution that will benefit them the most.

We have BRIO certified scaffolding with accessories to modulate and configure the working platforms, accesses, etc. according to each need, as well as to avoid overlaps and adapt to any of the typical interferences of these structures.

The majority of our projects are carried out in REVIT. It gives us the advantage of visualising the structure in 3D and sharing each of the solutions and scaffolding geometries with the customer. In this way, we avoid possible interference with future constructions or planned work at a later date. We provide the customer with a 360‑degree file for visualisation".

Ricardo Alberto Anaya, Commercial Manager, has always surrounded himself with professionals in the industrial sector and is now one of the visible faces of ULMA in this field: "My philosophy is to be there, with the customer. Transmitting that close relationship that allows me to ask them what they need and to assure them that there is no project that ULMA can't do. Because we offer a good product, good technical support. And the whole team believes that.

We have gone from 40-tonne works to projects of more than 750  tonnes. We started with BRIO scaffolding on the offshore platforms in the yard with ESSEASA and after this work, we moved on to the maintenance of Dragados Offshore platforms, but now offshore, with cantilever and hanging scaffolding at all levels. This was the beginning of a series of large projects, which, due to their magnitude and the trust we also created as manufacturers, opened doors for us.

We train the team before and during the entire project. Constant on‑ site supervision to give the customer peace of mind and certify that everything is assembled according to the studies and with total safety. There is always ULMA personnel on the projects, whether it is the technician, the supervisor, monitors or myself, the customer knows our faces and knows that there is a great team behind us".