Trucks that can take the heat
August 1st 2005

Avon Metals is using Doosan-Daewoo 3 tonne trucks at its Gloucester plant after they topped its market research into the best value forklifts on the market.

Avon supplies aluminium based grain refining and hardener products to the primary and re-melt sectors and also supplies aluminium casting alloys to the European automotive die casting industry. Melting is undertaken in electric and reverbratory furnaces with liquid metal temperatures reaching in excess of 1500°C.

Operations director, John Verdon, says a reliable and robust forklift is vital in a tough foundry environment.

“Yard and warehouse work are light relief for these trucks,” he says. “The real work starts in our foundry.

Our Daewoos are fitted with third and fourth hydraulics for different attachments, including rotators, hydraulic furnace loading boxes and furnace rakes – used to dross off molten metal. Our operators love these trucks and converting manual tasks to forklift operation has made their life a lot easier.” Build quality was the key decision in procurement. “I could not find anything to compete with Daewoo’s build quality,” says Verdon, “and that was before we talked prices. The Daewoo is a one off and although it has new developments such as the Cummins engine, it avoids unnecessary modern frills like complicated electronics in fold down arms or flimsy plastic bits.”

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