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SHIFTA SLIDES SAFELY
Page 49
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The Shifta pallet mat is a rare bit of kit — not just innovative, but useful too. Dave Young reports.
any 'new products' presented to CM are just variations on an existing theme but the'Shifta' pallet mat is genuinely innovative. Brainchild of Gray Speller and Malcolm Rowson owners of Haverhill, Suffolk-based packaging supplier Qualitape, the Shifta was developed to solve a problem familiar to many light CV operators.
Loading panel vans with pallets from the rear isn't too hard: an accurate forklift truck driver (possibly an oxymoron) can push them up the load bed one by one. But extracting cargo is a different matter.The widespread practice of pulling pallets out with a rope is far from safe, as Speller and Rowson realised when a spiked block parted company from its pallet at considerable velocity, narrowly missing an employee.
Their solution was to place under the load a slip mat with a strong alloy plate and a five-tonne-braking-strain webbing strap — useable with long-fork (reach) or short-fork (counterbalance) trucks to pull cargo to the rear. To demonstrate its use Qualitape loaded its own Sprinter with four pallets, one weighing a hefty 820kg.The first three dropped on to a Shifta mat at the tail; the alloy plate was then flipped up and the forklift truck pushed against it to move the cargo forward —the mat also reduces friction with the floor.
Once in position the last pallet went straight on to the deck and the load was secured in the normal way.
Pull the other one When tipping, the first pallet was forked straight off; the remainder were pulled to the tail with the two-position webbing strap prior to lift-off The alloy plate served as a securing point for the tow strap and — since it has five horizontal holes —suited various angles of pull to straighten twisted pallets stuck behind the wheclarches.
This clever device effectively fulfils three functions: meeting health and safety requirements (at least one major Qualitape client insists on safe means of unloading and will turn unequipped vans away); ensuring a high speed of turnaround; and avoiding damage to the van.
As demonstrated by driver Graham Mates it can also be used to pull unpalleted boxes to the rear doors,saving a lot of handballing.
A number of prototypes were tested in active service over three years of development before the current Shifta was arrived at."We originally had no intention of marketing it," Gary reveals, but the mat attracted so much favourable attention when delivering to clients that he and Malcolm have now set up a company to sell the device. • CONTACT:
www.shitla-pallet-matco.uk; 01440 715821; info@shitlapalle1mat.co.uk