Competitive modes at the
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mechanical handlinc.
exhibition
A preview by John Darker,
AMBIM THE 1968 International Mechanical Handling Exhibition at Earls Court, London, from May 14-24 to be opened by Mr. Anthony Wedgwood Benn, Minister of Technology, will provide an opportunity for over 300 firms to show a vast range of equipment designed to increase the productivity of industry and transport. In the two years since the last exhibition many advances have been made, not only in the design and quality of the smaller items of transport handling equipment but in the elaborate—and expensive—installations of interest to the -large organization. It is expected that buyers from 80 countries will attend.
A number of lecture courses, seminars, etc. will be held in conjunction with the exhibition; for example, a five-day technical tour arranged by Independent Trade
Missions includes visits to the advanced handling system at the new Replacement Parts Centre at Vauxhall Motors; the new production storage building of Pressed Steel Fisher, at Birmingham; the recently opened automatic warehouse of Boots Pure Drug Co.; and the London bottling store of Courage, Barclay and Simmonds.
An exciting feature of the mechanical handling industry is the intense competition between various handling systems. The advent of containerization has stimulated designers in several fields. Containers can be shifted and lifted by fork-lift trucks, by side-shift systems from platform to vehicle or from road to rail equipment, by straddle trucks, or by special-purpose cranes.
It would be wrong to ignore the potential of cranes for container handling. Some new British designs are likely to be produced under licence abroad. A member firm of the Association of Crane Makers is building two wide span container-handling gantries at Middlesbrough and Rotterdam. There is, too, a rapid expansion in the number of mobile dockside or tower cranes which can be driven on roads in compliance with current legal road requirements, and it is good to hear that automatic control gear, load cell weighing devices, even re mote control by radio are currently available.
The Lifting Equipment Manufacturers' Association reports many advances in air and hydraulic equipment. An "Air Balancer" puts 250Ib of lifting and balancing power into a man's finger tips and at the other extreme there are hydraulic jacks —perhaps of interest to heavy hauliers —which will lift 1,400 tons to a height of 46ft.
A large contingent of fork-lift truck manufacturers are represented. Lancer Boss shows the Boss Rough Terrain truck developed from an exacting military specification. This has an all-up weight of under 6,0001b with a lifting capacity of 4,0001b at 24in. load centre. Surprisingly, this versatile machine can travel in convoy at 45 mph and will ford salt water to a depth of 30in.
without special preparation or subsequent servicing. In the large-scale farming units that are developing, this Boss machine would be a valuable asset.
Henley exhibits five trucks with capacities from 5-25 tons. The Hermes range will lift 25 tons at 48in. load centres, with applications in container handling, in steel mills or timber yards.
The Owen organization features a wide range of products ranging from freight containers, container-handling machines, fork-lift trucks, pallets and pallet racking systems, and a completely new straddle machine, the Owen Karricon 304, designed to handle and stack two-high 10ft, 20ft and 30ft ISO containers. The Group's Conveyancer fork-truck division is celebrating 21 years of production by introducing the new "Starline" range, with a suitable motif and livery.
Barlow Myers will demonstrate Hyster lift trucks, Shaw side-loaders, the Trackmobile Road /Rail tractor and a range of floor maintenance equipment. Its Scottish associates, Caledonian Mechanical Handling Co. will show a wide range of special-purpose fork-lift trucks including the L45A, a 2-ton capacity truck equally suitable for container stuffing or warehouse operations. Wessex Industries with a range of forktrucks with capacities from 1,5001b to 10,000lb will demonstrate its new model FE 100-24, with a 10,000lb capacity at 24in. load centre. The standard truck has a lift height of 108in. and a turning radius of 96 in.
An improved range of internal combustion engined and electrically powered fork-lift trucks will be shown by Coventry Climax. Five new models are announced in the 10,000-15,000lb range, petrol, diesel or 1.p.g. fueled.
Mercury towing tractors MD20 and MD30 with draw-bar pulls of 2,000 and 3,000lb respectively will be shown on the Dennis stand. Mercury makes towing tractors capable of pulling loads up to 50 tons and their popularity on airports is likely to spread to other applications, particularly to the steel and timber industries and to the ports. The Mercury airfield equipment division will exhibit a range of Cargo King equipment designed for handling cargo and passengers in the jumbo jet era.
Several manufacturers of platform equipment will be represented. The "Trog" three-wheeled electric powered platform truck introduced by Powell and Co. is a simply designed but serviceable solution. "Sprog" electric scooters on show include a new and larger model with seat and built-in charger—ideal for the currently fashionable large warehouses.
Powell Duffryn Engineering Co. introduces new waste disposal and materials handling equipment at Earls Court. The equipment will also be shown at a number of forthcoming exhibitions such as the Institute of Public Cleansing exhibition at Brighton and the Public Works and Municipal Services Congress and exhibition at Olympia.
A number of new live storage systems will make their debut at Earls Court. The "Mopax" system designed by P.L.C. Engineering Co. incorporates shelves of gravity rollers, the system automatically feeding items or containers from a loading face at the rear to the order picking face.
Automatic warehouse systems allowing automatic stock control are now available. The ICT desk top Interrogating Visual Display Unit on the Electricity Council stand provides immediate visual access to information stored in a computer system. The Unit comprises a cathode ray rube and typewriter keyboard with control logic, power supply, character generator, buffer store and editing facilities. Messages typed into the Unit are held in a buffer store and displayed on the screen for verification—all part of the modern infrastructure with which distribution executives must become familiar.
George W. King, now part of the TI Group, shows for the first time its new Orda Mata order picking system. The KingTriax automatic warehouse installation, simulated crane operation by radio and a working model of a dockside container installation will also be featured_ The Tote System of materials handling as used in the new 0.5m Banbury plant of General Foods Ltd. will be demonstrated. This system was found to be highly flexible when a production unit of Alfred Bird and Sons—a group company—was transferred from Birmingham to Banbury. The Tote Bins were moved by road and fed direct into the packing lines at Banbury, enabling production schedules to be maintained.
The Wilson Foldfork, a built-in fork-lift device for use with articulated vehicles, has a lifting capacity of 6,0001b and a lift height of lift. At the low price of £850 complete with pump and hydraulic equipment this interesting application is likely to arouse much interest.
Many transport managers concerned with container stuffing will want to evaluate the various possible methods of doing this efficiently. The Collis concern has been very active in recent years in marine and air transport as well as in surface transport applications. This inter-modal experience cannot fail to prove valuable and its improved two-wheeled LoadaVeyor mobile elevating conveyor and a new range of TransVeyer ball units, employing new materials and methods of construction will attract many visitors.
It is difficult to categorize all the items of equipment to be shown at Earls Court but many makers of proprietary equipment will be represented. Plessey, for example, will show a new range of motorized pump units produced in conjunction with CAV. There are also new pumps designed for direct mounting to power take off points provided by major engine manufacturers, including units with standard S.A.E. mounting features. Another item is a complete hydrostatic transmission system already used in lift and platform trucks. This combines all the advantages of a reversible hydrostatic system with ease of installation. Power input rating is 50 hp.
Despite their comparatively high cost a growing number of possible applications for pallet movement using compressed air are emerging. British Hovercraft Corporation will demonstrate its Hoverpallets enabling containers or bulk loads weighing up to five tons per unit to be moved.