Combilift and Aisle Master 4-Way and Narrow-Aisle Handling
Before a summer dominated by sport and medals, Combilift won its own “Victor Ludorum” in 2012 at the UK Fork Lift Truck Association for Excellence Awards. Not only did the company win the Innovation Category for the second time, for its new Rough Terrain RT forklift, but its Combi-CB model scooped the first and only gold Winner of Winners accolade in the awards’ 18 year history. This was a special one-off award chosen from previous winning entries in the Environment, Ergonomics, Safety and Innov
Since the Combi-CB was introduced, demand for this compact counterbalance design truck has been exceptional, mainly down to its 4- way ability and versatility to handle a mix of pallets and long loads. Sapa Aluminium in Poland has just taken delivery of 10 CBs – eight 2.5t electric powered and two 4t diesel models – which are being used to handle finished product such as aluminium extrusions in and around the warehouse and to load and offload HGV’s. The various power options and capacities that this range now offers was therefore ideal for Sapa’s requirements for a fleet based on one uniform design but able to be adapted for specific tasks.
Aisle-Master moves up and branches out
The Aisle-Master range of articulated forklifts is now available with lift heights of 15m, enabling even better use of all vertical space for maximum pallet density and cost effective operations. Aisle-Master has been making strong inroads into the European market as more and more companies in the region are taking up the articulated concept in a bid to improve pallet density and reduce per-pallet costs.
Poland’s largest home improvement chain Castorama, part of Kingfisher plc, now has around 45 trucks operating across its network of outlets in the country. As a replacement for a combination of reach and counterbalance trucks, the Aisle-Masters have proved to be so successful that they are now the standard specification for any new depots that are opened.
In Scandinavia, where the cost of warehousing space is at a premium, the Swedish supplier of railway facilities and machinery Industrispår AB, has taken delivery of its first Aisle-Master for a long awaited new warehouse which will stock pallets of its smaller pieces of rail equipment such as spikes and nails. Aisle- Master’s design engineers used specialised 3D software to visualise a solution for Industrispår, which involved using staggered height racking to exploit every inch of space beneath the sloping eaves. This has resulted in a pallet count of 3,600, 30% more than could be achieved with any other system.
