Sideloaders lift productivity levels
October 1st 2008 In a deal worth £410 000,
Briggs Equipment UK has
sold five Baumann
Sideloaders to Dudley Tubes
to move heavy steel in high
racking.
The machines were
modified by Briggs
Equipment, the UK's
national CAT Lift Truck
distributor, to meet the
high lifting requirements of
Dudley Tubes. As the
sideloaders are usually
designed to carry timber
they needed strong
reinforcements to cope
with the 12m-long steel,
which can be lifted as high
as 6m in the warehouses.
Extra strengthening was
needed around the cab to
protect the driver, while
heavy duty guarding was
placed around lighting.
Dudley Tubes specialises
in cutting, fabrication and
stockholding of cold formed
steel tubing, handling up to
30 000t of steel tubing
each year. Its decision to
use modified sideloaders in
high racking has enabled it
to move away from
overhead cranes which in
turn has enabled it to
reduce the number of
operators in its warehouse
by more than 50%.
"The time savings we
have made in loading,
unloading and storing steel
has significantly increased
our productivity and
customer lead times," says
Wayne Peters, Director at
Dudley Tubes. "And with
Briggs' support it is rare
that we have downtime
now. Our fleet is running
99% of the time and if we
do have a breakdown,
Briggs get us up and running
again almost immediately. More articles from Briggs Equipment UK Ltd: | 
