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Demounts, drawbars and tippers generate 24 hour running
Page 24
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from a special correspondent • To date use of vehicles hauling drawbar trailers carrying demountable bodies has been minimal in this country. Even less significant has been the use of outfits of this kind which can load and unload their own bodies. Yet the concept is being applied successfully in a number of European countries, not least in Scandinavia where the Multi-lift system developed by Autolava Oy, of Raisio in Finland, and made and marketed in this country by Multi-lift Ltd, 292 Monk moor Rd, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, has a strong hold. One of the most unusual applications in Finland is a sixday, 24-hours-a-day run in which paper, in bales, rolls and packages, is shifted in one direction and furnace coal in the other.
More than 6000 vehicles are claimed to be operating in Europe today using the Multi-lift system. This comprises a chassis mounted tipping sub-frame onto which bodies can be locked in transit. The vehicle itself is equipped with a low-speed, high torque, hydraulic motor which is used with a system of cables when the body is tipped to lower the body gently to ground level. The body itself is fitted with skids on its underside and at the rear end to allow it to slip easily over the sub-frarne and be deposited on the ground without the body structure being damaged.
Control of the loading and unloading operation is exercised by the cables which are attached to the body to prevent it slipping quickly to the ground, so minimizing the danger of damage to the body and its contents. Outriggers from the sub-frame and attachment points on the body itself allow the vehicle body to be secured in transit.
In the trailer system evolved the standard hydraulic motor on the motive unit is employed in conjunction with extension cables which, when not in use, are looped on brackets down the sides of the drawing vehicle. To transfer a loaded body from the drawing vehicle on to a trailer the drawbar joining the two vehicles is uncoupled and held down by a spring-loading arrangement attached to the drawbar assembly. The drawing vehicle then backs close up to the trailer and the sub-frame is tilted to allow the controlled movement of the body onto the trailer. In the loading operation the cables arc used to draw the body straight onto the hauling vehicle.
In the Finnish operation, Scania 110 three-axled tractive units with AOA 769 (16-ton lift) Multi-lift equipment arc being used with standard drop-sided tipping bodies on a continuous shuttle service. The demountable bodies are preloaded with paper products and loaded straight from the ground in the manner indicated. The outfit delivers the load. setting each body down so that it can be unloaded by fork-truck or other mechanical handling equipment. Coal, preloaded in the bodies, is picked up in the same way and the vehicle's full tipping capabilities are put into effect at the delivery point as the bodies are unloaded as conventional tippers.