Moving Alvan Blanch’s grain driers onto low loaders for transportation used to take over three hours, involve five personnel and four forklifts. Since the company took delivery of a Combi-SC the procedure now requires just the one piece of lifting equipment, one driver and it is done and dusted in 10 minutes.

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Established over 60 years ago The company is a world leader in its field, exporting to over 100 countries from its base in rural Wiltshire. As its finished products became larger and longer it was apparent that a rethink on materials handling was required. As existing Combilift users Managing Director Andrew Blanch and Production Manager John Henden were aware of Combilift’s innovative products and invited the company to come up with a solution. “When we saw a video of the Combi-SC and realised that Combilift could customise the machine for our loads it was clear that this was the ideal answer,” says Andrew Blanch.

The grain driers are not dissimilar to containers in shape but they are tapered and the weight is not evenly distributed as the working components are mainly situated at one end. Combilift design engineers added a number of features to the Combi-SC to ensure stable lifting of various sized units, the largest of which weighs around 22t, is almost 20m long and nearly 4m wide.

The inside of the 35t capacity Combi-SC’s frame measures 5m as opposed to the standard 4.3m. This gives ample space for the larger driers, and front and rear spreader beams enable the position and length of the chain slings to be adjusted which caters for the various sizes of units. A choice of lifting points also ensures that the chains do not come into contact with the units, avoiding risk of any damage to the paintwork of the panels.

“More and more of our products are bespoke so our Combi-SC’s ability to adapt to varied dimensions is a real benefit,” says John Henden. “For example, when we are moving particularly high units we can raise the height by activating the 1.8m telescopic function and then lower it for more convenient travel around the site when it is not needed. In fact we will shortly be building a new finishing shed for which the telescopic function was specified.”

John continues: “Our business has grown drastically with a doubling of production, and as orders come in from around the world our operation is less seasonal and we are shipping out units on a regular basis. Having the Combi-SC on hand is much more convenient than other alternatives we looked into such as cranes, which need to be hired to schedule, and are also reliant on good weather for operation. As the SC can be operated by one driver we can avoid the previous scenario of having to take personnel from the shop floor to assist with loading so there is no loss of production time whilst this takes place. Our Combi-SC has definitely given us major benefits in terms of convenience, safety and speed.”

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