French tanks to keep owder dry in the UK
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• by Bryan Jarvis Merceron powder tankers are now available through &lotank UK, a branch of Waterhouses Garage Tanker group. By February it will also be offering petroleum tankers.
The move brings the number of powder tank suppliers in the UK to three. The other two are Metalair Feldbinder and Heil UK (formerly Thompson Heil).
Merceron tanker trailers, including the powder vessels, are built near Paris and come from its Dincvrac division. Waterhouses will market them in the UK and Ireland.
The Merceron powder tanker is an all-aluminium design with 45° inclinations front and rear
and twin outlet pots. For extra strength the neck end is braced inside by two large bridging frames and the rear end supporting section sloped outwards to meet the barrel's upper dome. To guard against fatigue cracking Merceron also beefs up the vessel's supporting frame with a series of deep vertical corrugations around the periphery.
Silotank's first demonstrator is a 36m3 tanker with BPW air-sprung running gear, front lift axle and rear steer. Alcoa wheels and lift-up handrail and steps. The unladen weight is 4,690kg.
To date the company has received orders for 45 of the powder tanks, mostly for Blue Circle. Waterhouses Garage and Silotank UK are situated on the A52 at Waterhouses, the main firm being a former Feldbinder agent that lost out after the Metalair takeover. The company is based on the edge of the Peak limestone district and it
repairs and maintains road tankers for several companies, not least Blue Circle. It also runs a 60strong rentals fleet.
Waterhouses holds more than 1.400,000-worth of related parts and also sells the GFP screw compressor. This has a reverse gear cluster which enables it to drive in either direction.