Over 30,000 chicks in one load
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BY H. BRIAN COTTEE VERY occasionally some striking new V design or process enables efficiency in ndustry or transport to be increased signiicantly in one move, but gains in productivity -esult much more often fronr steady, metholical development. In a sense, both lines of tpproach are to be seen in the case of a new lesign of chick transporter in which operator, )odybuilder and specialist supplier have worked together to evolve a type of vehicle )ffering really major advances in productive vorking. In this case, the lion's share has peen done by the operator, Buxted Chicken o.Ltd., one of the Allied Farm Foods ;roup.
The result is a controlled-ventilation transporter which is only of 19 ft. 6 in. internal tody length, yet can carry up to 32,800 dayId chicks in one load in prime conditions vhich are a virtual guarantee against chick 3SSCS in transit in any weather.
Previous chick carriers in use in the UK tave generally had air scoops along the sides nd extractor vents in roof and/or sides to ■ rovide ventilation, but in hot weather it is .ot uncommon for loads of chicks to have to e restricted to about half of vehicle capacity. 'his is not only wasteful, but involves making stimates of future weather when planning chicle loads and, even so, traffic congestion nd breakdowns can cause trouble.
The problem arises not only because large umbers of day-old chicks (carried in special ierced cardboard boxes) need a lot of air ) breathe on a journey but because they enerate a great deal of heat themselves— figure of 0.8 Btu/hr./chick has been estitated—and like other young creatures they ave very poor control of their body tern perature. When the ambient temperature rises, the chicks' body heat rises too. And at the figure quoted, 30,000 chicks are in any case producing around 24,000 Btu/hr. in temperate conditions.
This has been tackled by designing an insulated van body which has front-to-rear forced ventilation that is both draught-free and carefully controllable. A prototype has been running since August last year, and experience with this has gone into the design of five production models on extended Bedford TK 5-ton chassis which are now being completed by J. H. Sparshatt and Son Ltd., of Portsmouth, at their Portchester and Burrfields Road works.
Sparshatts, in fact, are at present meeting Buxted orders for vehicles covering the whole life-cycle of their poultry: temperature controlled vans for taking eggs to the hatcheries, chick transporters taking the new birds from hatchery to broiler units, flat trucks for carrying live broiler chickens to the Buxted plant, and refrigerated vans for distribution of frozen birds.
The chick transporter project began several years ago, and the present design took shape from discussions held at the time of the 1964 Commercial Motor Show, when the Buxted company's request to Sparshatts for a possible design resulted in the bodybuilder approaching Key-Leather for cooperation on the heating and ventilation side.
Buxted devoted a lot of thought and time and a fair amount of money to the project and, with K-L's guidance, built a mock-up of a transporter body in their Horsted Keynes hatchery and used actual chicks to establish the basic requirements and the feasibility of meeting them. The results of the simulation tests were passed to Sparshatts with an order for a prototype body, and after six months' field trials with this, which showed up only a few small operational snags, a firm order for five more was placed.
The transporter body, built on a TK 12 ft. 7 in.-wheelbase chassis extended by 25 in., has steel and hardwood framing carrying alloy panelling, with 2 in. polystyrene insulation to the front bulkhead, rear doors, floor, roof and detachable plastics Luton head; the side walls have 1+ in. insulation.
At the front of the Luton are air intakes, two of which are permanently open, positioned to get the best ram effect from air deflected upwards by the windscreen. Two K-L heat exchangers in the nose of the Luton can be used to warm the incoming air when required. Both the Luton intakes and two auxiliary mesh-covered "hot-weather" intakes at the front of the main body admit air to what is, in effect, an air reservoir formed by a solid plywood bulkhead 9 in. to the rear of the main body bulkhead.
Let into the ply bulkhead are eight electric intake fans, and 9 in. to the rear of this plywood wall is yet another bulkhead, this time comprising expanded light-alloy mesh on a metal frame, acting as an air diffuser. This ensures that the blast of air produced when the intake fans are on is converted into a draught-free rearward flow over the whole cross-section of the body.
Eight extractor fans are installed at the rear of the body; both these and the intake fans are controlled in separate groups by switches in the cab. The electricity requirement is met by substituting a Prestolite alternator for the engine-mounted dynamo, and then having the dynamo driven separately by V-belt from a propshaft take-off. Two extra batteries are fitted also.
The rear closure is by a 4 ft. 6 in. springloaded tailboard, with pull-out supports housed alongside the chassis frame, and a 2 ft. upper flap which when open acts as a weather shield for the operative. The tailboard/body gap is bridged by hardwood planks which, in transit, are fitted into slots in the body sides to retain the load trolleys firmly in place.
There are eight of these trolleys, each on fully castoring nylon wheels which run in pairs of recessed floor tracks. Each 7 ft. 6 in.long trolley has nine shelves for the cardboard boxes which each hold 50 chicks. The trolleys have upper, masts running in steadychannels in the roof.
The trolleys "belong" to the transporter and remain with it, except when they are wheeled into the hatchery for preloading. Unloading procedure involves pulling a trolley out on to the tailboard, handing the boxes down from the shelves and then pushing the trolley across the tailboard where it is out of the way while the second trolley on the same track is brought forward for unloading. These two are then pushed back down their track and another pair are dealt with in the same way. Stops at the rear of the tailboard prevent trolleys running off.
Temperature sensing units in the Luton head and at the centre and rear of the body interior are linked to three thermometer dials in front of the driver, and it has been found very simple to keep body temperatures absolutely steady. The chicks are both • hatched and brooded at temperatures in ti 90s, but a figure of 72°F is considered ide for the vehicle interior, and a range of 70-7 though narrow, is easily complied with.
It is also important that air circulatit should be as nearly as possible the san around each chick box, and lengthy expei ments by Buxted, and especially by grot transport manager John Roberts, ha' resulted in carefully spaced baffles at the en, of the trolleys to promote even air flow, 1 the Sparshatts end of the job Cyril Eyei who manages the refrigerated and insulati bodywork division, has devoted much tie and thought to similar detail-design problerr
The result is a fleet of vehicles whic operating from Buxted hatcheries in Susse Essex, Yorkshire and Wiltshire, will enat fewer vehicle-hours to be devoted to carry', the same total number of chicks as befell Two journeys a day, where destinations a fairly close, will permit one vehicle to de a whole day's hatching of around 60,0 chicks from one hatchery. In fact, trips va from single-drop at some large broiler holtt to multi-drops involving many custome But whatever the type of operation, thc new transporters offer a potentially rrit productive way of meeting it than hither and with chicks carried in conditions ti could hardly be bettered.