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27th February 1997
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Page 43, 27th February 1997 — ROAD
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Market Harborough-based King Trailers is building a new family of modular extending low-loader trailers with hydraulically steered axles using the latest in three-dimensional CAD (computer-aided design) modelling.

The new designs stem from the recent purchase of ProEngineer CAD equipment which allows King and a prospective client to arrive at the required specification using 3D screen presentations.

"Special trailers are invariably built around special loads," says King's managing director Mark Carrington, "and this software makes it far easier for the operator to equate to our screen visuals and for us to design in his special needs". He adds: "Our clients already think in 3D anyway so they understand just what they're seeing".

To exemplify the benefits of using the ProEngineer building-block approach, King showed CM its most recent development using the system. It's the GTLE 78/3 tria.x1e

extending low-loader with 15-tonne SAF axles, removable neck and 33-tonne king pin.

The trailer is being built for an unnamed client who will use the largest four-axled tracfive unit possible to haul loads grossing up to 78 tonnes.

From that design comes King's next project the GTLE 100/4. Four 16.5-tonne, hydraulically suspended axles and a detachable neck will allow the haulier to transport loads of up to 99 tonnes.

Another recent design attracting interest is the MTSLE low-deck single spine extender. Six have been built so far; the latest one was ordered by John Golding of Gloucester; the rest have been exported to Denmark and Germany.

They all used cranked SAE air-suspended axles and 205/70R 17.51n tyre equipment to bring the main deck's running height down to 23in (595mm). For easier loading, the platform can be lowered a further 70mm by evacuating the air from the suspension. Options include a powered beavertail and a self-tracker axle.

King has also updated its MTSE extendible design: there are now more than 10 variants. The choices span three to six axles with extending decks up to 30m within a 16.5m closed combination length and powered beavertails.

The most recent to be built is a triaxle extender with a hydraulic neck for Heavy Haul of Chelmsford. With its 33-tonne kingpin rating and 15-tonne axles it can handle 78tonne loads on STGO Cat 2 or 3 work.

Using ProEngineer, King can project all possible angles beneath new power-steered trailers to ensure there are maximum clearances throughout the turning movements.

Should a client so wish, the CAD system can also plot turning circles to ensure that the combination can enter the most awkward site approach roads or depots.

Finally, when the design is complete it will calculate a new trailer's overall weight much more accurately than in the past, taking into account material specifications, densities and dimensions.

As well as updating UK designs, King Trailers is using ProEngineer to develop variants for use on the Continent and to sell into other foreign markets.

In the past King was best known for building a wide range of high-value trailers, including Special Types, and this remains its core business. However, since the management buyout nearly two years ago it has also concentrated on low-volume, high-spec niche areas such as skip-loader and hook-lift trailers for the waste industry; recovery trailers; mobile weighbridges; and motor-racing support trailers.

King also builds specialist transporters for clients including the Ministry of Defence, Telecom reel carriers and ariel platforms ranging from small van-mounts to those with a 27m outreach. In the past two years King's

turnover has risen 50%. Last year's total was £18m, of which 20% came from its Sky King platform division, but the company also produced £1m worth of extendible trailers. "Until the management buy-out," says Carrington, "we'd only built 10 extenders in as many years but in the past 18 months we've sold close to 40,"

He's taken a long, hard look at the European scene and, with a number of its trailers working on the Continent, he says that King is well positioned to step up its challenge.

There's been a steady investment in what he sees as leading-edge technology to develop a fully integrated production system at the Riverside factory, from 3D CAD systems to profiling machinery.

As if to underline Carrington's keenness to "get among the Continentals" all of Kings new products are built to German TV standards with many of the major assemblies and components in common use on the Continent— such as SAF, SAE and BPW axles and suspensions with Wabco or Grau braking equipment.

"UK operators really don't have to go abroad to buy their power-steered Special Types trailers," he says. "They can get them here in Market Harborough."

0 by Bryan Jarvis


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