N
ovember
2014
87
Combilifts stand
up to the test
THE national distribution centre (NDC) of BSS Industrial
stocks the equivalent of over 250 miles of tube and pipe in its
47,500ft
2
warehouse, and uses four Combilift electric C4000
EST stand-on models to ensure the efficient handling and
storage of its 600+ product lines.
Following BSS Industrial’s acquisition by the Travis Perkins
Group at the end of 2010, it now forms part of the plumbing
and heating division of Britain’s largest builders’ merchants
group. The NDC operates 24-hour shifts, five days a week,
to supply its 62 branches, and the Combilifts work round the
clock to move around 56t of metal, stainless steel, galvanised
steel and plastic tubes, rod and rail on a daily basis.
An EST was initially trialled towards the end of 2012 when
the contract for BSS Industrial’s previous truck fleet came to an
end, and orders for three more soon followed. The machines
are on contract hire from materials handling solution provider
Rushlift Ltd, whose team of mobile engineers also carry out
the maintenance and service on all Combilift equipment
within BSS Industrial.
The ST range has a very narrow cab, with stand-on or
seated options, and its ability to operate in very narrow
aisles makes it suitable for steel and pipe stockholding
facilities such as the BSS Industrial NDC. The 4t-capacity
trucks handle bundles weighing from 500kg to 2t in aisle
widths of 1.8m. They are fitted with guide rollers for guided
aisle operation, which enables faster travel down the aisles
and reduces the risk of product damage. Together with a lift
height of 9.5m to access the 13 storage levels, maximum use
of all available space has been achieved to accommodate
the 2,353 picking locations.
An in-cab camera monitor ensures a good view of the
load when accessing the high top beam, and hydraulic fork
positioners allow quick and easy adjustment of the fork width
to accord to the varying product sizes.
Smaller C2500 ESTs are in operation in over a dozen
BSS Industrial branches, and these were designed to meet
the requirements for very manoeuvrable machines that can
offload from HGVs, manoeuvre stock around and load trucks
for daily customer deliveries. They are now the standard
specification for branches when forklifts need to be renewed.
A key feature of this model is the set of additional
hydraulically operated longer fold down forks, which contribute
to health and safety procedures when offloading. The short
70mm forks are compatible with the depth of the racking arms
on which goods are stored, but this makes them too short to
reach across the bed of the trailer. Rather than using slings
to access and lift the centrally placed bundles of tubes and
pipes, the operator merely needs to activate a lever in the cab
to fold down the 1,480mm-long extra forks, which can reach
under the load and retract it back to the side of the trailer.
The standard forks can then be redeployed to complete the
offloading procedure.
Combilift Ltd, Co
– Ireland
Fax: +353 47 80501
Email:
Website:
Messe Düsseldorf GmbH
P.O. Box 101006 _ 40001 Düsseldorf _ Germany
Tel. +49(0)211/4560-01_Fax +49(0)211/4560-668
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