TPT May 2015

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Industry News
12 May 2015
€40mn investment in new
manufacturing facility
COMBILIFT Ltd, Ireland, is to invest
€40mn over the next two years in a new
manufacturing facility, which will also
create 200 additional jobs over the next
five years. The announcement wasmade
by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny, along
with the minister for jobs, enterprise and
innovation Richard Bruton, on a visit to
Combilift’s current HQ.
The expansion will enable Combilift
to proceed with its plan to double its
current €150mn turnover over the next
five years. The majority of the 200 new
jobs to be created will be for skilled
technicians and design engineers, and
a further 200 jobs will be created during
the two-year construction period of the
new facility.
Combilift purchased 40 hectares
of industrial zoned land, where the
purpose-built, 40,000m 2 greenfield
manufacturing site will be built. This
will include a dedicated research and
development building and adjoining
administrational offices, and will be
more than double the size of both of
the company’s present manufacturing
facilities.
Combilift is best known for its range
of multi-directional forklifts, Aisle-
Master articulated forklifts, and material
handling solutions such as the Combilift
Straddle Carrier designed to handle
large containers and over-sized loads.
The company was set up by managing
director Martin McVicar and technical
director Robert Moffett in 1998, and
has since produced in excess of 24,500
units.
Mr McVicar commented, “With this
greenfield investment and sufficient
land available on the new site for future
expansion, Combilift is committed
to continuing its organic growth in
Monaghan for many years to come.”
He also stated that the company is the
process of submitting an apprenticeship
application to accredit its employees
and those of other Irish engineering
companies as ‘Original Equipment
Manufacturers (OEM) technicians’.
This apprenticeship aims to educate
technicians to be competent in
hydraulics, electrics and troubleshooting
diagnostics.
Welcoming the announcement, An
Taoiseach Enda Kenny said, “It is
growing and dynamic Irish companies
likeCombilift which are driving a recovery
across Ireland’s regions. Combilift’s new
€40mn facility in Monaghan will make a
profound difference to the local economy
and the national export economy.”
Combilift Ltd – Ireland
Fax: +353 47 80501
Email:
Website:
Martin McVicar, An Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Robert Moffett
Newly designed HFI weld boxes
RAFTER Equipment Corporation has
delivered three RT-2500S HFI weld
squeezeboxes for amajorNorthAmerican
mechanical tubing producer. The new
boxes will replace the customer’s existing
three-roll ‘scroll chuck’ style boxes that
were not strong enough for the heavier
wall thicknesses and higher yield strength
materials that needed to be produced.
Because the boxes needed to be more
robust but still occupy the same footprint,
a new design was required.
The new design follows the company’s
push-on-centre weld box philosophy that
eliminates the cantilever forces on the
roll tooling clevises (or yokes) that affect
many other weld box designs. Heavy-
duty Timken tapered roller bearings
within the roll tools provide increased
bearing life. The boxes can handle up to
76.2mm OD x 4.8mm wall (3" x 0.188")
tube running HSLA material.
To better survive the typical tube mill
environment, the worm-screw head
roll adjusters are in a new sealed box
design that should provide years of
maintenance-free operation. The head
roll adjustments are run through the back
of the unit’s sealed frame and are brought
to the operator’s side for easy access. A
gasketed internal guide tube is designed
to keep mill coolant from flooding the
interior of the box. Rafter manufactures
tube mills, pipe mills, roll forming
machines, cut-off machines and other
related tube and pipe mill machinery.
Additional services include rebuilding and
upgrading mill equipment.
Rafter Equipment Corp – USA
Fax: +1 440 573 3703
Website: