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PATTERN Of THE FUTURE VISIBLE AT BRIGHTON

28th April 1967, Page 70
28th April 1967
Page 70
Page 71
Page 72
Page 70, 28th April 1967 — PATTERN Of THE FUTURE VISIBLE AT BRIGHTON
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AT Brighton on Monday, the first British exhibition covering international freight movement and the freight management industries was opened by Mrs. Barbara Castle, Minister of Transport.

Commending the exhibition, Mrs. Castle said the days were over when shipping and rail men and road men were separate breeds. All were interdependent now. She would be legislating in the autumn to establish the National Freight Organization to provide "the administrative structure in the public sector which will enable us to exploit the new unitized freight methods to the absolute maximum".

Reminding exhibitors and delegates to the conference sessions that 20 per cent of the cost of approved dockside investment in specialized plant and mechanical handling equipment—straddle carriers, fork-lift trucks and quay cranes—could be met by Government grant, the Minister stressed that efficiency required port authorities stevedoring firms and shippers to co-operate with others in the transport chain.

More than 90 exhibitors, representative of a broad cross-section of companies concerned with the transport and handling of freight, displayed their products or services at the Hotel Metropole or at Black Rock, nearby. Containerization was the dominant theme with 15 container manufacturers vying for custom.

Fork-lift and industrial truck makers were well represented and a number showed models designed for shipboard use. Coventry Climax showed six trucks including the new MSDA 6,000 lb. diesel-powered fork-lift with detachable ballast and mast. Lansing Bagnall highlighted model FOER 9, the only truck of its kind with electronic control over traction, mast, tilt, lift and lower. And another striking exhibit was the Rapide, built to •operate on slippery cambered decks.

Henley Forklift Co. showed a range of heavy duty fork-lift yard trucks with capacities from 6,000 lb. to 12,000 lb. together with its Hercules range lifting up to 26,000 lb. Eaton Yale and Towne featured the Stowaway, a fork-lift truck specially designed for low headroom work in ships or containers. Reddey Mechanical Handling showed five Allis Chalmers forklifts including the low-profile range which operate under 6 ft. bulkheads with full free lift action and triple masts. Stacatruk featured the new Clark Air Pallets with a load-carrying capacity of 6,000 lb. and a new 5.000 lb. capacity electric fork-lift truck, ES 50.

Nine fork-lift trucks of the range of 65 made by the Lancer Boss group included the new small P 4 series of 4,000 lb. capacity and the giant 2500 series sideloader which demonstrated its manoeuvrability with good effect in the confined Black Rock display area.

Bonsor Equipment Ltd. showed a new 7,000 lb. capacity rough terrain fork-lift truck and its standard 9,000 lb. capacity model fitted with the Voith torque converter. Among models displayed by Wessex Industries was a new 10,000 lb. capacity low-lift platform truck and an interesting pallet trailer fitted with a series of detachable rollers and suitable for front, rear or side loading.

The Owen organization showed a number of Conveyancer fork-lift trucks including a 6,000 lb. capacity model designed for quick separation into three parts for hoisting aboard ship. At Black Rock Owen demonstrated its pre-loading trailer system requiring one tractor /trailer combination for any number of containers.

Fred Myers Ltd. featured the HysterRansomes LO:70A battery-electric model of 7,000 lb. capacity designed for shipboard work between decks and model H. 250, a 20,500 lb. capacity fork-lift truck shown handling a 10 ft.-long ISO container. Universal Power Drives Ltd. showed three Hustler fork-lift trucks including a 3-ton model fitted with a rotating paper roll clamp.

At Black Rock a variety of container handling methods were shown. Alexander Stephens and Sons Ltd. demonstrated its Ship Charger dockside tractor, designed for manoeuvring semi-trailers and parking containers, and its Conjack, a container-lifting and transporting device for handling 20-ton ISO containers. It is towed, powered by, and controlled from, a Ship Charger tractor.

The impressive Anderston Clyde 360 Powerbeam straddle-carrier stacks ISO containers three high and typifies the strength of the engineering consortium set up to produce a complete range of equipment for handling containers up to 40 ft. in length.

Rollalong showed a new mechanical device for adjusting lifting sling lengths to keep an out-of-balance load horizontal together with two 12-ton trolley gantries working in tandem to lift a 20 ft. container. The French Railways display included CNC containers to ISO specification and details of Kangaroo vehicles available to British hauliers. Fred Olsen Lines effectively demonstrated the many advantages of the unit load systems they have developed for a wide range of goods.

Thermo King self-contained refrigeration units developed by Petter have made inroads into many overseas countries and this display included details of service stations established in Europe; refrigeration units designed for sea-going containers were also shown.

There was an impressive display of containers of all sizes and many manufacturers stressed their available productive capacity. Prices quoted were often tentative, depending naturally on order sizes and specification. Cravens Homalloy Ltd. showed a range of ISO containers in light alloy which can be coupled into 40 ft. units; Metropolitan Cammell Ltd., with a 40 ft. prototype container, offer this in steel or aluminium.

Thompson Trailmobile Ltd., showed the first stainless steel container built to full ISO requirements and Bonallack's 20 ft. dry freight container had been tested with an additional stacking load of 200 tons. Concarno Ltd. showed a one-piece moulded colour impregnated shipping container for perishable foods, and Duramin Engineering (Lydney) Ltd., displayed an insulated marine container of sandwich construction incorporating foam core insulation with fibre glass panels.

Crane Fruehauf showed a 20 ft. ISO alloy container and Seaway Containers included a 20-ton container and the new Conway "E" type semi-trailer unit. York Trailer Co. Ltd., exhibited a new 20 ft. container and proved its water-tightness by mooring another in the sea opposite the exhibition.

Among other equipment noted, Acrow (Automation) Ltd. showed a new "Switch Cart" which can be programmed automatically and is being used in the United States in freight clearing centres and a "Lo-Tow" conveyor system offering special installation advantages; Grundy (Teddington) Ltd. showed 600 gal. transportable containers for bulk liquids; Tote Systems International showed the ease with which tote bins can be loaded on lorries; British Hovercraft Corporation a hover pallet; R. Murfitt Ltd. its Traverser container handling unit for the side transfer of containers up to 30 tons; and R. R. Wired Services showed closedcircuit television equipment with many specialind uses.

Transport and ferry operators were well represented. Thoresen's display included maps showing routes into Europe and Asia from Cherbourg and Le Havre; Mann and Son (London) Ltd. provided details of rollon roll-off services to Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Bremerhaven; Containerway and Roadferry gave details of their comprehensive door-to-door. services in . international transport, and United Steamship Co. particulars of services from Harwich to Esbjerg and Copenhagen and from Felixstowe to Copenhagen. The services of Townsend Car Ferries on the Dover to Calais and Zeebrugge routes, Normandy Ferries' Southampton to Le Havre services and the Hull to Rotterdam services of North Sea Ferries were well displayed.

The international services and facilities of Pickfords Ltd. were effectively displayed and AFS (Shipping) Ltd. featured an illuminated map showing links between distribution services and shipping and forwarding offices. Ferrymasters Ltd. gave details of their extensive throughout movements to European destinations.