Automatic Stacking by Pallet Loader
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WHEN he lectured, on Tuesday, Co W the Midland section of the Institute of Transport on fork-lift trucks and the use of pallets, Mr. E. G. Whitaker, 11/4/1.Inst.T., drew attention to an automatic pallet 'loader made in the United States which can stack a predetermined number of packages.
The machine can deal with 1,2001,500 packages an hour. The number of boxes per layer, the number of rows per layer, spacing of boxes and the number of boxes per row can all be controlled and various stacking combinations can be obtained.
Mr. Whitaker mentioned this appliance in the course of a survey of the different types of fork-lift truck that are available and the auxiliary equipment for dealing with various items.
Dealing with the economies of using mechanical-handling appliances, he said that handling ability depended upon many factors, but he gave the following average figures for hauls of up • to 100 ft. each way with an average cycle of 21 minutes: 2,000-Ib. truck, 20 tons per hour; 4,000-lb. truck, 40 tons per hour; 6,000-1b. truck, 50 tons Per hour.
He stated that Canadian Steamship Lines. Ltd., had found the advantages of mechanical handling' to be so great That ships had been specially designed to carry palleted cargoes. Quicker turn-round more than compensated a Toss of about 25 per cent. in stowage space, The Dutch railways had also developed the use of pallets and a large proportion of smalls traffic was being dealt with by this means.
NEW LORRY HAS AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION
ANEW parcels delivery vehicle introduced by G.M.C. Truck and Coach Division, Pontiac, Michigan, has a fully automatic transmission system. Known as the dual-range Hydiamatic drive, it provides three forward speeds for city work and four speeds for country operation.
Last year, this Hydramatic transmission system was introduced into the company's M-135 6 by 6 military truck, a vehicle that has been in production since last September.
"CAT-CRACKER" IN OPERATION THE new catalytic cracking unit at Stanlow refinery, Cheshire, is now in commercial production, turning out petroleum products at a rate of over lm. tons a year. Built at a cost, including auxiliaries, of f8m., its completion marks the final stage of the E3Ont. post-war refinery expansion programme in the United Kingdom carried out by the Shell Petroleum Co.
Restriction on Hire Purchase Attacked
"WITHOUT hire purchase, the W growth of the motor manufacturing industry would have been infinitely smaller," stated Mr. 1. Gibson Jarvie, chairman of United Dominions Trust, Ltd., when he spoke to the Incorporated Accountants' London and District Society.
in that event, the country would have been deprived of the great dollar-earning capacity of the industry, yet the Chancellor of the Exchequer had seen fit to limit the hire purchase of vehicles.
This would not have the slightest effect on safes or inflation, because there were too many potential buyers and too few new or used vehicles for hirepurchase terms to influence the volume of hire-purchase trade. "The planners have produced one more plan and established still another control which will undoubtedly provide jobs for more bureaucrats and add to the expenses of the distributors without any corresponding benefit. It is a Little surprising that a Conservative Government pledged to abolish controls and to re-establish freedom should have introduced this' one." he declared.
MINERS PROTEST AGAINST FARES
A SOUTH WALES miners' confer
ence in Cardiff last week passed a resolution expressing the "strongest protest" against the South Wales Licensing Authority's decision to abolish workmen's fares.
It called upon the Regional Council of Labour to convene a conference of all affiliated bodies to further this protest, and asked the South-western Division of the National Coal Board to give "immediate and favourable attention" to the extension of the principle of the payment of the maximum weekly fare of '5s. to men travelling on non-subsidized services.
The resolution also advised the Board that "extreme difficulty" would he experienced in avoiding industrial unrest if the anomaly of miners paying different fares when travelling to the same colliery continued.
NO BRANDED FUELS
THE Government considers that in the country's present financial position, branded fuels cannot be reintroduced. The Minister of Fuel and Power gave this information, last week, to Viscount Hinchingbrooke.
The leading oil companies staled afterwards that the Government's decision would cause expensive new refineries and others under construction to be inadequately employed.
DRAWBACK ON TYRES THE Treasury has made the Silk Duties (Drawback) (No. 1) Order, 1952, which increases until September 30 next the rate of drawback payable on tyres from 91d. to Is. 7d. a lb. ist respect of the doubled or twisted thread made from -imported artificial silk yarn used In their manufacture.