Rigging-Busters rigs, moves and installs production equipment for auto plants, Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers and mould shops across Windsor-Essex: presses and dies, robot cells, conveyors and complete lines. Our crews travel for planned projects, and one crew handles both the auto plant equipment rigging and the millwright installation.
Windsor-Essex is home to more than 250 machine, tool, die and mould makers and over 500 automation firms (Invest WindsorEssex). We move and install the presses, machine tools and automation lines they run, and the equipment that arrives at the region’s assembly and engine plants.
- Industrial only: plant equipment, presses and lines; no vehicle transport, car repair or household moves.
- One crew: rigging, transport, set-in-place, levelling and millwright installation.
- Fast quotes: replies usually within 2–4 working hours once we have all the details, and estimates are free.
- Minimum job: 3,500 CAD before tax. Most industrial jobs cost more, and your written quote shows the full price.
- Service area: Windsor, Tecumseh, LaSalle, Lakeshore, Essex County and Chatham-Kent, with cross-border US transport.
For a rough budget before you send drawings, try our Heavy Lifting and Moving Calculator.
or give a call +1-519-800-5124
How We Move and Install Auto Plant Equipment in Windsor-Essex
Every press, robot-cell or line move follows the same seven steps:
- Equipment list and drawings: make, model and weight of each piece, the OEM’s manuals and the new layout.
- Site survey: access, gantry or crane positions, floor loads and your shutdown window.
- Move and install plan: method, sequence, crew, permits and timeline.
- Lockout and disconnects by your licensed electricians and maintenance team.
- Rigging and loading on skates, gantries, jack-and-roll or a partner crane, with each piece secured for transport.
- Transport with route approvals and permits, across the region or across the border.
- Set in place, level, align and anchor; the OEM or your integrator then commissions.
Rigging Equipment on Windsor Jobs
- Machinery skates and toe jacks for presses and machine bases
- Hydraulic gantries where a bay has no overhead crane
- Jack-and-roll for the heaviest press frames and bolsters
- Heavy-capacity lift trucks for dies, moulds and loading
- Trailers matched to each load, including lowboys
- Crane lifts through licensed crane partners when a job needs one
Transport, Permits and Cross-Border Moves
Inside the city, an oversize move needs route approval from Traffic Operations at least 72 hours ahead, then a moving permit from the Engineering Department (City of Windsor). County roads need their own moving permit with at least 10 business days’ notice (County of Essex), and Highway 401 needs an MTO permit. When presses, conveyors or line sections go from Windsor to other Ontario plants, see machinery transport in Ontario. Equipment from Michigan can come in through the Detroit–Windsor crossings: on the Gordie Howe International Bridge, open since July 2026, oversize and overweight loads need MTO and/or MDOT permits and a call to its Traffic Management Centre at least 24 hours before crossing. For a line going to a US or Mexican plant, or coming back to Windsor-Essex, see cross-border machinery moving.
Millwright Services: Set, Level, Anchor
After the move, our millwrights set each machine on its marks, level it, align it to the line and anchor it to the OEM’s foundation drawing, then hand it over for power and commissioning. You get millwright services from the same crew that moved the machine, rather than a second millwright company on site.
or give a call +1-519-800-5124
Presses, Dies, Robot Cells and Lines We Move
Auto plants, suppliers and mould shops in Windsor-Essex call us for:
Presses and Tooling
Stamping and transfer presses, press brakes and injection moulding machines, plus heavy dies, moulds and tooling moved between plants or into storage. On a press relocation, the press travels with its dies removed or secured and is set and levelled across the bed at the new bay. Foundations, pits and press alignment are explained under press moving and installation in Ontario.
Robot Cells, Conveyors and Assembly Lines
Robot cells move as units where their fencing and bases allow, conveyors section by section, and assembly-line sections in the order they will be reinstalled. Conveyor installation and robot installation follow the integrator’s layout; the integrator handles programming.
CNC, EDM and Mould-Shop Equipment
Machining centres, EDM machines, grinders and spotting presses from the region’s tool, die and mould shops, including whole-shop consolidations. With the 2026 expansion of US Section 232 tariffs to a 50% fee on steel, aluminum and copper content, the Canadian Association of Mold Makers has warned that some firms may have to consider moving across the border; we plan those moves machine by machine. For single machines, see CNC machine movers in Windsor.
or give a call +1-519-800-5124
Retool, Shutdown and Changeover Work
Retools such as Ford’s C$700 million investment to maximize 5.0-litre engine output at its Essex Engine Plant (Ford Canada, July 2026) are planned around fixed shutdown windows. We plan our part the same way: backwards from your restart date, with what comes out first, where it is staged and what goes back in, in which order.
We work under your plant’s lockout program and contractor rules, alongside the other industrial contractors on site. Some OEM plants require union trades or prequalification on platforms such as ISNetworld or Avetta; tell us your site’s rules with the quote request and we confirm what applies.
Moving and Installing Plant Equipment in Windsor: What Affects the Price
Every press, line or shop move is quoted per job. The main cost drivers are:
- Weight and number of pieces: press frames, bolsters, dies and auxiliaries
- Method: skates, gantries, jack-and-roll or a partner crane
- Crew days and travel for multi-day projects
- Permits, route approvals and border crossings
- Millwright installation: levelling, alignment and anchoring at the new position
- Timing: shutdowns, nights and weekends
For a rough range first, use our Heavy Lifting and Moving Calculator; for a firm price, send the details listed below.
or give a call +1-519-800-5124
Paperwork for Auto Plant Projects in Ontario
- Notice of Project: required when labour and materials exceed $250,000 for a project confined to a factory that manufactures or assembles automobiles, and $50,000 elsewhere, including parts suppliers (O. Reg. 213/91).
- WSIB clearance: installing machinery is construction work, so the hiring company must get the contractor’s clearance certificate before work starts.
- Electrical: your licensed electricians or plant electrical staff disconnect power, air and controls (O. Reg. 570/05), under your lockout program.
- Site requirements: prequalification and insurance certificates are confirmed in the quote, to your site’s rules.
Why Windsor-Essex Plants Hire Us
- One crew from rigging to millwright installation.
- Press, robot-cell, conveyor and mould-shop equipment moved and set to the OEM’s requirements.
- Cross-border US transport quoted case by case.
- Permits, route approvals and escorts handled.
- Planned around shutdowns and changeovers.
- Quotes usually within 2–4 working hours once we have all the details.
- Equipment: jack-and-roll systems for loads up to 600 tons, hydraulic gantries, lift trucks up to 60,000 lb and float trailers for loads up to 50 tons.
- Insured: $5 million in liability insurance, plus workers’ compensation coverage (WSIB in Ontario), with a certificate of insurance on request.
A good fit: press, robot-cell and line moves, plant and factory relocations, tool, die and mould shop consolidations, equipment arriving from the US, and installation of new machines.
Not a fit: vehicle lifts and garage hoists, car or truck transport, auto repair, household moves, crane or forklift rental on its own, millwright jobs (we don’t hire through this page), and EV charger installation, which is an electrician’s job.
or give a call +1-519-800-5124
Areas We Cover in Windsor-Essex
We work across Windsor, from the Walker Road industrial corridor and the plants along the E.C. Row Expressway to Ford City and the employment lands near the airport, and across Essex County: Tecumseh and the Oldcastle business park, LaSalle, Lakeshore, Amherstburg, Essex, Kingsville and Leamington, plus Chatham-Kent. For machinery moves without installation, see machinery movers in Windsor; for rigging-only work, industrial rigging services in Windsor.
Windsor-Essex Towns on Our Routes
| City/Town | Province | Country |
|---|---|---|
| Windsor | Ontario | Canada |
| LaSalle | Ontario | Canada |
| Tecumseh | Ontario | Canada |
| Amherstburg | Ontario | Canada |
| Essex | Ontario | Canada |
| Lakeshore | Ontario | Canada |
| Leamington | Ontario | Canada |
| Kingsville | Ontario | Canada |
| Chatham-Kent | Ontario | Canada |
or give a call +1-519-800-5124
Have These Ready for an Exact Quote
Send these with your quote request so we can price a press, line or shop move accurately:
- Equipment list: make, model, weight and dimensions of each press, cell or machine
- Layouts: the old and new positions, and the OEM’s installation requirements
- Both addresses, with dock, door and crane-bay details
- Your shutdown window and restart date
- Site rules: lockout, prequalification, union or insurance requirements
- Border crossings: whether anything comes from or goes to the US
Other Services in Windsor
Browse all our industrial services in Windsor, or go straight to a related service:
- Heavy Equipment and Machinery Movers in Windsor, ON
- Heavy and Industrial Rigging Services in Windsor, ON
- Forklift Moving Service in Windsor, ON
- CNC Machine Movers in Windsor, ON
- Heavy Equipment Loading, Unloading and Hauling in Windsor, ON
- Millwright and Machinery Installation in Hamilton, ON
- Robotics Equipment Moving in Toronto, ON
Location of our sales office:
3270 Electricity Dr, Windsor, ON N8W 5J1, Canada
Auto Plant Rigging in Windsor: FAQ
Yes. Press and robot-cell moves in Windsor-Essex plants are planned backwards from the restart date: the sequence, crew size and staging area are fixed before the shutdown begins. Each unit is match-marked, rigged out, moved and reinstalled, then levelled and aligned so your integrator and the OEM can restart it. Night and weekend shifts are quoted up front.
Yes. We move dies, moulds and other heavy tooling between Windsor-Essex plants, into storage or onto trucks bound for customers across the border, using lift trucks, gantries and skates suited to the load. Each piece is secured and blocked for transport, and the order is planned around the presses and moulding machines waiting for it.
Yes. For a line or shop relocation we inventory and match-mark every machine, plan the order of removal and reinstallation, and move the equipment in stages so the most critical machines are running first. Our millwrights then set, level and anchor each machine at the new site.
Setting each machine on its layout marks, levelling it with machinist levels and shims, aligning it to the line or mating equipment, and anchoring it with bolts and base plates to the OEM’s foundation drawing. Your licensed electricians reconnect power and controls, and the OEM or integrator commissions the equipment. Where the OEM calls for laser alignment, we plan it into the job.
As soon as the shutdown dates are set. The site visit, rigging plan and permits are done before the shutdown starts, so the crew can work from day one. City of Windsor route approval needs at least 72 hours, County of Essex roads need 10 business days of notice, and MTO single-trip permits need at least 5 business days. Auto plants usually take their longest shutdowns in summer and over the holidays, so those weeks book up first.
Cross-border US transport is quoted case by case, and equipment from Michigan can come in through the Detroit and Windsor crossings. On the Gordie Howe International Bridge, oversize and overweight loads need MTO and/or MDOT permits and a call to the bridge’s Traffic Management Centre at least 24 hours before crossing. Your customs broker handles the import paperwork.
On City of Windsor roads, an oversize move needs route approval from Traffic Operations at least 72 hours before the move, then a moving permit from the Engineering Department. County of Essex roads need a separate moving permit with at least 10 business days of notice, and Highway 401 needs an MTO permit. We arrange the approvals and any escorts as part of the move.
Yes, above set thresholds. For a project confined to a factory that manufactures or assembles automobiles, a Notice of Project is required when labour and materials exceed $250,000; for other workplaces, including parts suppliers, the threshold is $50,000 under O. Reg. 213/91. The hiring company must also get the contractor’s WSIB clearance before work starts.
Your licensed electricians or your plant’s own electrical staff, under your lockout program. In Ontario, electrical work for hire needs a licensed electrical contractor under O. Reg. 570/05. Our crew rigs and moves the equipment once it is isolated, then sets and levels it at the new position so your electricians and the integrator can reconnect power, air and controls.
Each press, line or shop move is priced per job. The cost depends on the weight and number of pieces, the rigging method, crew days and travel, permits and border crossings, millwright installation and the shutdown timing. Use our Heavy Lifting and Moving Calculator for a rough range, then send the equipment list for an exact quote.
