The new Konecranes SMV 4527 reach stacker.

Asset rental firm Dawsonrentals Temperature Control Solutions (TCS) turned to Cooper SH for a bespoke solution when it faced a significant increase in the product sizes it handles.

Its Nottinghamshire facility supplies temperature-controlled units in Europe and has taken delivery of a new Konecranes SMV 4527 reach stacker to handle a 5 T increase in unit size.

David Cooper, managing director of Cooper SH, explains: "Dawsonrentals TCS had been using an SMV 25 T 'midi' reach stacker since 2001. However, the size of its units (has) increased from 13 to 18 T; making the smaller machine borderline effective, especially when dealing with the extended load centre and dynamic moving load.

"The units can measure up to 16 m (52 ft.) long, 3.8 m (12.5 ft.) wide by 4 m (13 ft.) tall each, with refrigerated equipment mounted at one end, making for an eccentric load.

"We recommended a fully laden reach stacker which, having a 27 T capacity at 3,850 mm (12.6 ft.) load centre, was ideally suited to capacity requirements without overly increasing ground loadings."

Each unit is handled by way of a skid placed underneath with four lifting points, which attach to slings. The reach stacker function is ideal as the lifting points can be adjusted by the 20 to 40 ft. spreader function. The reach and rotate facilities can also accommodate fine positioning in advance of any lift to reduce the effect of load swing on the 6 m length slings.

"While sling points are a standard feature on the container spreader, this application is almost unique in that every lift is achieved by slinging. The operator demonstrates great skill in handling a dynamic load and Dawsonrentals TCS is one of the very few operators who use the spreader rotate facility to compensate for not approaching at 90 degrees to the load. This will save greatly on tyre wear," Cooper adds.

Gary Fothergill, Dawsonrentals' operations manager, says the TCS units, with their size, weight and absence of any conventional ISO twist locks, bring a challenging handling requirement. "However, the past 12 years have proven the reach stacker concept is ideal for this purpose. The extra capacity requirement is reflective in demand of increasingly larger unit sizes, thus satisfying customer demand.

"The transition from a 25 T to a 45 T capacity machine has been seamless and we have been pleasantly surprised by how quiet the machine is, both inside and outside the cab, despite it having a 13 l (3.4 gal.) engine when compared to the 9 l (2.4 gal.) in the smaller machine."

The SMV 4527 reach stacker was exhibited, prior to delivery, at the recent IMHX 2013 exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham.