IRTE SHOW
Page 75
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
PULLS PROFESSIONALS WITH BUYING POWER
TWO clear trends emerged from last week's Institute of Road Transport Engineers display at Solihull: a rapidly growing preference among transport engineers for air suspension on new lorries and trailers; and an increasing need to tailor bodies and ancillary equipment to operational requirements. At least two new products winch were due to make their show debuts did not appear. They were Iveco's right-hand drive 6 X 2, 220.30 and Southfields' Captive curtainsider body. But there were more than enough genuinely new pieces of equipment on display to keep even the most inquisitive of engineers occupied for the two days of the Some passed an idle moment or two in checking the many different types of sideguard on show to see if they complied with the letter of the law. Not all did. That was why the novel webbing sideguard from DonBur which attracted so much attention at last year's show did not appear this year. It seems that the webbing, even when ratcheted taut, is not considered by the Department of Transport to be "essentially rigid", as the law requires. But DonBur has not yet given up hope of reintroducing what was widely held to be a very good idea.
Notable among the IRTE show firsts this year was the Apex stainless steel shoring track; Anti-Skid Controls' new CRM anti-lock system with individual wheel control, which is expected to be in production by September; Dunlop Engineering's extensively re-engineered and lightened Flexolink air suspension; and a plethora of new tail lifts from Ray Smith, Ratcliff, Ross and Bonnyman, BCT and H. I Tenderson.
In the following pages I have selected other exhibits which caught my eye. Every exhibitor to whom I spoke at Solihull welcomed the reorganisation which allowed conference delegates more time to visit the display and, as always at IRTE shows, every exhibitor was impressed with the "quality" of visitors to his stand. "Everyone I meet here is a professional, invariably with real buying power," said one.
• By 'rim Blakemore. Pictures by Cohn Sowman.