Roundabout cuts loading time
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SUBSTANTIAL reductions in vehicle turn-round time at shops and depots are claimed for the Hydrauto pallet-loading system, now available in the UK from George Cohen Co Ltd, Wood Lane, Shepherds Bush.
The system can be fitted to any vehicle body. It is electrohydraulically driven and consists of a centrally mounted continuous conveyor which is used to shuttle wheeled pallets around the body towards the rear door for unloading. Conversely, pallets can be loaded into the body by simply clipping them onto the conveyor.
The pallets, which are designed for the system, locate on conveyor arms and may be hitched to or unhitched from them in any order. So there is no need for strict loading or unloading sequences, and the delivery driver can plan his calls according to traffic or other conditions rather than loading sequences.
When the driver wishes to unload one or more of the pallets he lowers the tail-gate, which doubles as the hydraulic tail-lift platform, from outside the vehicle. A remote hand-set with wandering lead is then used to control the complete loading/unloading sequence. The requi red pallets are shuttled to the doors, their locking pins released and the by Trevor Longcroft pallet manually pulled onto the tail-lift, which is then lowered to the ground.
Pallets carried in the centre of the van above the conveyor gear are manually withdrawn onto the tail-lift after a hingedown ramp is dropped. When the ramp is locked in the raised position the pallets are secured for normal running.
Tetra Pak Ltd already uses this system, which was origin ally built to its own specifica tion, to deliver dairy products in Glasgow. The company uses its own 400mm x 600mm module pallet, built to ISO standards, and a demonstra tion vehicle with 7m (23ft) long body, that I saw could handle up to 44 pallets. All the pallets can be removed from the conveyor belt in less than two minutes.
The hydraulic system can be transferred between bodies or alternatively removed in about 6 hours to leave the body free for other work. The system can also be used with demountable bodies.
As fitted to the demonstration vehicle the system plus tailboard added 1.1 tonnes (1.0 tons) to the unladen kerb weight and cost £6,300 fitted.