New Demountable Pallet-deck Bodies for Brewery Work
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COMPLETELY removable and interchangeable load decks in the form of roller-mounted pallets are used on a new fleet of Dennis Pax 5/6-ton lorries with all-metal bodies built by J. H. Sparshatt and Sons Ltd. of Portsmouth; they are for Courage, Barclay and Simonds Ltd., the well-known brewers.
The fleet—a large one—is being built expressly to serve a large new bottling store in London in which, when it is completed, mechanical methods will completely replace traditional handling of cases and bottles both for bulk distribution and for delivery to individual licensed premises. Although these bodies have been developed specifically for brewery work the pallet-deck principle is clearly applicable to many goods distribution systems.
The great variety of beers in different sizes of bottle makes the use of ordinary pallets of only limited advantage in serving a mechanized bottling store, as loads still need to be made up and broken down by hand. It is principally to eliminate this handling and thus speed delivery and turn-round that the new Sparshatt-bodied lorries have the entire load floor built as a single 15 ft. by 7 ft, metal pallet which, within the bottling store, runs on track and and is moved by an endless chain provided with coupling hooks. As a vehicle floor, the pallet (jigbuilt and therefore interchangeable within the whole fleet) is mounted on rollers which run on a sub-frame permanently fixed to the chassis. 'The removable deck is held in place by a quick-action device developed by Sparshatts over 10 'Years ago. The pallet is built of square tubes arranged transversely so that the forks of a lift-truck can slide between them.
Loads are first assembled on spare vehicle decks within the bottling store and are moved to the loading bank to be rolled on to the vehicle's sub-frame; levelling jaws on the bank engage with rollers at the rear of the chassis to ensure that the loading height is correct. The bodies have light-alloy dropsides and tailboards and a simple device ensures that these cannot be lifted and closed until the pallet-securing lock is fully engaged.
On a vehicle's return to the bottling store, the pallet deck is released from the sub-frame, removed by overhead hoist and lifted into the stores where any empty cases are unloaded mechanically.
HUNGARIAN TIPPER
A NEW 10-metric-ton-capacity tipper will go into series production this year in the Hungarian Wagon and Machine Works at Gyor.