VICTORIA’S Australasian Pipeline and Pre-Cast took delivery of Crown forklifts just over a year ago to take the pressure of its overstretched fleet.
The company makes thousands of tonnes of pipes a year on a 44-acre site at Kilmore. This massive output was, in part, the result of a 2004 investment in a new cast pipe production facility that increased their production significantly.
According to Eeles, the increased production was placing great strain on the companies existing fleet of forklift trucks, which was struggling to meet shipping deadlines.
“We realised that we needed to upgrade our fleet if we were to deliver on time, let alone meet new business targets” Eeles said.
“Loading of trucks happens for up to 15 hours of each day and we generally load between 10 and 20 trucks in that time.”
The Crown fleet ultimately selected by Australian Pipeline and Pre-Cast is all diesel-powered and will ultimately consist of three 7t units and one each of Crown’s 4, 5 and 8t units.
All of this equipment incorporates several features to enable the handling of the huge range of concrete pipes produced at the facility, including independently adjustable hydraulic fork tynes, dual wheels for rough terrain work, heavy-duty GM industrial diesel motors, specially designed round fork tynes to reduce damage to the pipes, and pre-cleaner air filters to ensure efficient running of the equipment
Most of the fleet has special attachments capable of handling pipes of varying size. The attachments consist of four adjustable side-shifting forks that enable the operator to set the optimum gap for each load. Matching the attachments to the right trucks has significantly improved productivity, according to Eeles.
“Our previous fleet suffered from having poor attachments which led to considerable breakdowns and downtime. And it’s hard to get the most out of your operators when their trucks not performing as they should,” Eeles said.
Crown Australia aus.marketing@crown.com