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WEIGHT WATCHERS
Page 90
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Exel and Spanish tanker maker Cisternas Cabo have developed a new 'lite' ADR spirit tanker which could set the standard for future 44-tonne operations. Brian Weather!ley reports.
Bulk tanker operators are always looking for more payload. True to form, Exel's latest six-compartment 44-tonne petroleum tanker, developed with Cistemas Cobo,shaves no less than half a tonne off the standard trailer currently in use. Moreover. Exel is so pleased with it that Barrie Hall, engineering operations manager for Exel's Special Products and Industrial division, is already predicting "it will become the norm".
Commercial Motor has been given an exclusive sneak preview of Cobo's new 'lite' ADR semi at the company's Santander plant, courtesy of technical director Fernando Gomis Galan, who says the Spanish tank maker has "just taken little bits here and there — but without touching the strength and structural integrity of the standard product. We've kept the standard [oval] shell,structure, chassis and kingpin." Hall reports that the original concept was developed with an eye to meeting a Most Efficient Unit (MEU) tender for Exxon — however,the 43,000-litre lightweight tank will now start work on Exel's Morrisons supermarket delivery contract. Hall insists: "It's nothing really different in terms of the spec of tanker we've had in the past.We were the first [operator] in the UK to have a Cobo tanker in 1997. It's since down 2.4 million kilometres covering around 300,000km per year and it's been excellent."
While he reckons that no vehicle is ever problem-free,"not least as they get lighter and lighter, Cobo has worked with us well on this project — the finite element analysis in particular was a critical part of the joint project." To help save weight, Exel specced the SAF Integral axles with 390x45mm 19.5in discs as well as simplified non-winding alloy landing legs which save an additional 60kg — Exel's tank trailers are seldom disconnected from their prime mover except for servicing and safety checks.
The productivity advantages of the new Cobo trailer look particularly attractive. Hall estimates that, depending on the specific gravity of product, Exel can carry close to 800 litres extra of revenue-generating product within a normal 44-tonne gross weight.
Cobo has also revised the trailer's bottom pipes, using a smoother radius to provide an improved product flow, especially when carrying derv, as well as increasing the "fall" on the pipes by fitting low-profile foot valves at the rear. However, the rest of the discharge equipment is 100% standard including the API-height control cabinet. Exel specs KnorrBremse EBS braking as standard on all its new products along with the TRSP roll stability and TIM trailer info module.
The Cobo `lite' will be launched at the Federation of Petrol Suppliers show on 20-21 April (01565 631313) and will compete head-on with a similar 5.1-tonne tank developed by Heil (CM 4 November).But Fernando Gomis Galan says the Cobo 'lite' is as far as the company is prepared to go in terms of weightsaving without compromising durability. Cobo says the lightweight trailer should be "no more than 5%" dearer than an ordinary tank.