Even-spread glitter
Page 50
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• Gritmatic "pendulum action" gritters, which are claimed to give a greater degree of spreading accuracy than other machines, were demonstrated recently to a party of local government officers visiting the Sprucefield depot of Down County Council, Northern Ireland.
The party saw two of the range of seven basic models marketed by Municipal Grit matic Ltd, of Hecla Works, Bamber Bridge, Preston, which is a subsidiary of Municipal Appliances Ltd.
The design incorporates an independent power grifter, driven by a Lister SRI series diesel engine, which has hydraulic circuits controlled in the driver's cab by a block valve controlling the supply of material to the Vanspreader. The speed of the pendulum determines the width of the spread. Anon-off shunt valve enables the driver to shut the whole system down when waiting, say, at traffic lights.
In the demonstration one gritter, mounted on a lorry chassis and hydraulically controlled from the driver's cab, put down an even carpet of salt at 0.25 oz per sq yd. Covering the same area again, the density was increased to 2 oz per sq yd. This can be done with salt or grit or a mixture of both.
The unit can be demounted in about 15 min. by use of the hydraulically operated stillage supports which have a 1.5-ton lift on each stillage. Total unladen weight of this unit is 30cwt.
All the machines are internally lined with glassfibre and feeder belts are fully baffled so that bridging no longer takes place.
The Municipal Gritting Co is now designing machines to handle the lighterdensity materials which will be appearing during 1972.