The hovercraft principle
Equipment for moving heavy industrial loads based on the hovercraft principle has been available in the UK for 50 years or more. It is therefore surprising that to so many of the enquirers to Rotair Moving System’s website, this tried and tested method appears a “modern and magic solution” for their application.
It can be an installation of heavy but fragile products. It can also move over weight limited floors, clean room environments, production areas where crane access is denied (ovens, test chambers, etc) or assembly line manufacture where loads get progressively heavier as they move along the line.
The airfilm units are widely used in the offshore industry where confined space and paths on oil platforms require high manoeuvrability which air skates can provide.
All that is needed is a good quality floor and compressed air in sufficient volume and pressure. Moving then becomes effortless, according to Rotair. Low powered drives and radio remote controls improve the safety and ease of moving the heaviest loads. Rotair have supplied equipment moving 1 to over 200 tonnes this past year.
Rotair Moving Systems – a distributor for what’s claimed to be the world’s largest manufacturer Delu of Nuremberg – is seeing its business grow rapidly each year as new and complementary products are added to its range. Siemens, Germany use a Delu airfilm transporter to move 600 tonne transformers (see photo).
