|
Press
Releases
German
Rail Stay on Track With Linde
Linde
nets Viamax order
Linde
lands 'ore'some 99 truck order for Chile
Fenwick-Linde
Marches to French Army
Container
handling at Faroe Ship is booming
Linde
Lift Truck Pours Molten Aluminium by Remote Control!
Linde
Reachstackers do the job at Eurogate
Merthyr
Gets a Lift from Linde
Mini
Steering Maersk Machine
Linde
Merits Meratus contract
German
Rail Stays On Track with Linde
Flexibility
in material handling, a leading characteristic of Linde forklift
trucks has contributed to a major gain in productivity at the railway
vehicle maintenance facilities of Deutsche Bahn AG in Kassel, Germany.
The plant at
Kassel is Deutsche Bahn's central maintenance and repair facility
for diesel railcar units. Until recently, car bogies due for reconditioning
were towed to the repair shop by locomotive over an indirect route.
Now the job is performed by a Linde 14 tonne forklift that takes
a short cut over the paved yards. Ralf Meister, in charge of material
management at the site, is quite enthusiastic: "With the diesel
forklift we have cut transport time to a sixth and achieved faster
throughput of vehicles and components".
With the specially
designed forks positioned at the rail track the bogie is winched
onto them, using the truck's mast, the operation is controlled in
the cab by the central joystick. The bogie is lifted clear of the
rails and transported to the workshops for reconditioning.
Three factors
are cited by the purchasing manager for Linde prevailing over the
competition and winning the DB contract worth around the price of
a single-family house: "Regarding the truck itself, we were
persuaded by Linde's economy and ease of handling", he says.
"Fuel efficiency of the engine makes itself felt on the long
transport runs in the same manner that matching of the hydraulic
lifting to engine speed and output does. Good all-round visibility
from the cab for safe manoeuvring and the comfortable operator compartment
with its logically arranged and convenient controls were no less
important to us." Reliability in operation and the ready availability
of qualified service engineers carry equal weight. "Seeing
that the forklift performs a key function in our internal handling
operations, it needs to be in good working order all the time",
Meister adds. "Previous good dealings with the local Linde
dealer Igemac Fördertechnik, who happens to be located near
by, made our decision easier."
In the course
of a week the Linde diesel forklift handles an average of 100 bogies,
with numbers increasing. "We are now planning to use the forklift
for moving the motor modules of the railcars," Meister reports.
|
