aids to transport ef f iciency
Page 47
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by Roger Howell
WITH the transport exhibition and conference season in full swing, it is easy to overlook some of the exhibitions in other fields which feature products with transport applications. One such is the Business Efficiency Exhibition, held this month at Olympia. A tour of the stands revealed a fair number of products which are old friends so far as transport operators are concerned, but also some recent innovations. And in both categories there was equipment to save time and trouble and make complicated jobs simpler.
Now that maintenance is no longer taken for granted, one must face the problem of how to progress it. Comprehensive files on each vehicle may well suit the workshop, and with a small fleet, the engineer can keep the traffic man up-to-date. However, as fleet size increases the traffic man must be able to check the maintenance position at a glance. A hand drawn graph does the job to a point, but why not have a compact wall chart made to individual specification ?
At least two manufacturers had such chart systems on display at Olympia. Adapta-Charts Ltd., London, N.20, displayed its system which is based on closely perforated plastics panels with coloured flags and an integral indexing system. Adapta-Charts have been developed over a period of 20 years and during this time many improvements have been incorporated. often as a result of user experience.
A typical maintenance chart has a time (or mileage) scale along the horizontal axis, with the card index for individual items of equipment on the vertical. Along with a moveable dateline there are various coloured symbols, together with a variable flowline which would normally be extended to the last service date or mileage. Another Adapta-Chart application is for pallet location, the unit displayed being designed primarily for use in conjunction with live storage racking systems working on the first in, first out principle.
A variation on the same theme was shown by Peter Williams (Filing Systems) Ltd. Marketed as Strafoplan, the chart is built up with toughened polystyrene sections. each section having 10 slots. The sections are available in five different widths ranging
from in to and are completely interchangeable.
Like the Adapta-Chart the Strafoplan can be used for many wall chart applications, the main difference being in the actual construc tion technique and also the use by Strafoplan of moveable data cards designed specially to fit into the slotted holders. The Strafoplan trade literature also showed swinging panel and mobile trolley versions.
Modem Telephones (Great Britain) Ltd. has marketed its Electrowriter for some time, but again developments have been made as a result of operational experience. The basic equipment is a transmitter/receiver connected over any distance either by private land-line or through the GPO network. The standard transmitter is fully transistorized and has an ink capacity for 80 hours continuous use.
Writing area is 5 in. by nin., the operation of the continuous paper roll being controlled by movement of the special pen. To the writer it is as though he was using a normal ball point on normal paper, but as he writes, an exact reproduction is made on the receiver unit by way of a pantograph mechanism.
The obvious advantage to the transport concern is that it permits centralized management, it being possible to transmit information and written instructions to an out-station, or depot, giving written authority and facsimile signatures. The Electrowriter can be used with pre-printed stationery, and hence any number of delivery and release orders can be made out from base, the paper reel on the receiver moving in unison with that on the transmitter.
The obvious development of the basic oneway transmitter/receiver is a two-way system permitting the sub-depot to reply to instructions and also to furnish end-of-period returns and reports which will not require further transcription. By making use of the GPO system any number of points may be individually connected by dialling an ordinary telephone code.
. Instead of having both transmitter and receiver at focal points, Modern Telephones has now developed a dual unit known as the Transceiver which provides combined details of original message and reply. I gather that agreement has been reached with the GPO to use the machine coupled to a phone answering set One may now dial an out station as per normal telephone procedure and if the call is answered via automatic answering equipment the movement of a key will switch to the Electrowriter system. Hence instructions, delivery orders etc. can be transmitted at any time of day, this being particularly useful when a sub-depot is in the charge of a senior driver, or is otherwise unmanned for long periods. Many county ambulance services have shown interest in this new application.
The Electrowriter has several claimed advantages over the telex system. Apart from its adaptability, viz, use for sketches and on pre-printed stationery, the system does not require a skilled operator. Similarly users can be easily identified by their own handwriting. The equipment can be purchased outright or rented, the rental for a single-line transmitter to receiver being £4 per week.
Public service vehicle operators may well be interested in two coin-counting systems seen at the exhibition. Certainly with the increase of one-man operation, it is extremely important for driver and cash office to reconcile cash and tickets sold quickly, and both Automaticket Ltd. and Standard Coin Counting Co. Ltd. displayed equipment which should facilitate this.
The most sophisticated Automaticket machine is the model 7001 which is a combined counter and sorter. Claimed throughput of this machine is 600 coins per minute, the coins rapidly passing from a hopper to a conveyor which feeds into eight separate denomination columns. The count is done through photoelectric cells, and the machine automatically rejects badly bent coins.
By the simple exchange of programme cards the machine is convertible to handle both sterling/decimal coinage combined, or decimal coinage alone. The Automaticket representative cited the case of a South Coast branch of a national bank which could now count and sort its weekly coin total in 15 man hours as against 18 previously. There are other smaller models in the Automaticket range for sorting purposes only, including one hand-operated version.
Standard Coin Counting Co. displayed a counting and sorting unit basically similar in design and price to the Automaticket model 7001. Also on this stand was the model E electrically operated coin-counting machine with a claimed performance of up to £100 per minute. A cut out mechanism is incorporated which can stop the machine at 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 coin intervals, The transport depot is generally spreading in area and the transmission of documents and spares over a large compound is becoming more and more time-consuming. Many of the new container terminals have tailor-made tube systems and two manufacturers. Dialled Despatches Ltd. and Lamson Engineering Co. Ltd. state that they are receiving a growing number of inquiries from transport sources. Again it might be said that the equipment is too expensive for the small operator, but like most communication systems. "basic" models are on offer. and can be developed.
The Dialled Despatches Ltd. system, although relying on compressed air for motive power, is interesting in that the communication circuit is computer controlled. Stations are connected to the tube circuit by means of branch tubes and diverts. When a carrier is dispatched the destination is selected by dialling a coded signal to the computer. The code is retained in the computer memory bank until the container is identified as it enters its destination section. Dialled Despatches states that any number of single tube circuits may be inter-connected.
Lamson Engineering has been in the pneumatic tube business for many years and has a wide range of systems which work on a central exchange basis, all stations being independently connected to central control. Stations are either connected by two separate tubes, or alternatively the Vacu-Pressure system can be employed, carriers travelling one way under suction and the other way under pressure.
Lamson also employs automatic destination equipment, either for the exchange systems or for ring main systems. On the exchange system the destination is actually selected by setting rings on the body of the carrier to the code of the required station. By means of electrical contacts made through these rings while in the tube, the carrier is discharged at the correct destination.
Returning to electrical manufacture, Standard Telephones and Cables Ltd. displayed a comprehensive range of communication equipment and fire alarms. Its Terryphone system might well be useful in the larger haulage/container depot, where the driver with the delivery docket has "gone for a walk", or where a traffic clerk has left the office with that vital piece of information "stored upstairs".
The Terryphone performs the dual function of communication and staff location. No dialling and no internal exchange is involved. Each telephone instrument has a button and loudspeaker, and when the button is pressed the caller's voice is heard from the loudspeaker of all other phones on the circuit. Once the called person has lifted a receiver he is in direct contact, and all loudspeakers are muted.