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30 Vehicles

2nd February 1951
Page 44
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Page 44, 2nd February 1951 — 30 Vehicles
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'ortia a

Drum

oking Factory

A Mobile Works which Produces 1,000 10-gallon Drums Per Day and Provides Full Amenities for the Personnel. Fuel-dispensing Body Designed and Built in Seven Days ONE of the most interesting demonstrations ever staged of the practicability of building up a factory from units carried in convoy by road was given last week in the Empire Hall, Olympia. The occasion was the preview of a mobile drummaking factory which was conceived only 2i months ago.

Excluding the vehicles and ancillary equipment, which are provided for the well-being of the works personnel. the factory unit is comprised of four D.A.F. tractor-trailer outfits, a D.A.F, articulated machine, and a Morris-Commercial 5-ton chassis with a special body designed to carry and dispense the fuel and water needed for the vehicles in the convoy. N The whole of the machinery employed to make the drums is permanently mounted and carried on the four trailers and•two of the tractors. The other two tractors, which carry girders, floor sections and other structural components. take no part in the final factory set-up.

The articulated outfit which forms the power house carries a 150 b.h.p. oil engine coupled to two generators, one of 25 kVA capacity and the other producing 175 kVA. The drum-making equipment is laid out on the respective tractors and trailers so that when the vehicles take up their predetermined positions on the chosen site. the sequence of operations c6 in making a complete drum, from shearing the steel plate to removing the finished drum from the chain conveyor of the drying oven, is carried through in strict progression, To form the factory, a tractor and two trailers are manceuvred into position in line astern: Then follow the second tractor and two trailers. which are brought up alongside, but spaced about 8 ft. apart.

Based on Six Vehicles

Immediately the six vehicles arc in the correct position. bridging girders are slung across the intervening space and prefabricated floor sections are laid across the girders. While the floor is being built up, the tubular roof trusses which span from the permanent tubular frame work on the vehicles are being secured in position.

With the machines covered over, as when in convoy on the road, it took eight minutes to get production started. and 18 minutes later the first drum, airtested, sprayed and dried, came off the line.

Some idea of the equipment necessary for 10 operators to produce 1,000 10gallon drums per day during a 48-hour working week can be gauged by the number of the individual operations called for. These include shearing the steel plate to size, grinding the top and bottom edges. rolling the sheet hit° a

cylinder, and spot and seam-welding the veitical joint. Then follows the formation of the rolling hoops, corrugations and flanges, and seaming the top and bottom plates in position. The drum is then tested to a pressure of 7 lb. per sq. in.. after which it is sprayed and dried in an infra-red oven. The total length of the production line is 110 ft. Fluorescent lighting is used.

The quiet running of the whole factory is noteworthy. The reason is largely that the tyres of the vehicles are never allowed to lose contact with the ground, although a simple form of screw jack is used to relieve the springs of a proportion of the load.

The D.A.F. tractors, which are built in Holland, are powered by a Hercules 4.6-litre six-cylindered side-valve petrol engine which develops 102 b.h.p. at

3,200 r.p.m. They are fitted with a five-speed gearbox and bevel-driven rear axle. Although oil fuel in Holland is half the price of petrol, the tax on an oil-engined vehicle is 21times that on a petrol-engined machine, and as the vehicles in this case would never cover extensive mileages, the petrolengined vehicles are more economical.

With a wheelbase of 24 ft. 6 ins., the trailers are rated for a gross load of 5-6 tons and the tractors 6-7 tons. The semi-trailer, with its generating plant, weighs 13 tons, the complete outfit weighing 15 tons.

The four wheels of the semi-trailer bogie are independently sprung, one semi-elliptic spring being used on each side. Each wheel is mounted on a stub axle which forms part of an A-frame pivoted at its broad end to a chassis cross-member. The semi-elliptic springs span the distance between the respective stub axles.

A point of interest attaches to the special body on the Morris-Commercial chassis in that, complete with fittings and dispensing gear, it took only seven days to build, John Stubbs, Ltd., Liverpool, undertook this work. The body carries 14 drums each of 40-gallon capacity. This vehicle also hauls a D.A.F. 4i-ton trailer.

In addition to the vehicles and equipment already mentioned the convoy, ready for travElling, includes three Chevrolet 1-tonners, each of which pulls a caravan, two American-built Dodge 15-cwt. machines, one of which hauls a caravan, an Austin Three-way van hauling yet another caravan, and three Chevrolet 10-cwt. station wagons.

Two of the caravans provide between them sleeping accommodation for 26 people. The one which sleeps 10 people has a shower bath and two lavatories, and the other has accommodation for 16 persons in eight double beds. The caravan hauled by the Austin is fitted as an office for the works manager, whilst one of the Chevrolet 1-tonners tows a Dineola restaurant car. The unit is self-contained even to the extent of providing entertainment for the works people in what is termed a theatre car.

The demonstration was sponsored by the Van Leer Group of companies, of which the English organization is Metal Containers, Ltd., 17, Waterloo Place, London, S.W.1, Drum production in this factory is proceeding at the National Packaging Exhibition now running at Olympia. The exhibition closes on February 9. The exhibit of the Van Leer concern occupieS the whole of the Empire Hall.

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Locations: London, Austin, Liverpool

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