 Hydrobolt has chosen Doosan forklifts |
When the contract on its forklift truck fleet came up for review, Hydrobolt turned to its long-standing supplier of materials handling equipment, Rushlift, a wholly owned subsidiary of Doosan Industrial Vehicles.
Hydrobolt is a specialist manufacturer of fasteners, supplying high-integrity machine-turned products to the oil and gas, heavy engineering and construction industries. Around 70% of the output from its two UK sites in Wolverhampton and Birmingham is exported for use on critical applications such as sub-sea pipes for the energy sector.
Much of the work carried out at its main manufacturing operation in Wolverhampton is for bespoke products, which takes a sharp focus on quality, service and maintaining competitive lead times. Under these demanding conditions, ensuring fast and efficient handling of raw materials, work-in-progress and finished goods is absolutely vital, requiring a range of highly versatile, reliable and robust forklift trucks suited to the exacting needs of precision manufacturing.
"Although there were other companies out there, we wanted to stick with a supplier we rated," says Ian Butler, operations director at Hydrobolt. "We've been with Rushlift for over nine years and have had mainly Doosan trucks over that time. They've always been very reliable and responsive to our needs."
Rushlift identified the potential to rationalise the fleet by replacing a 7 T counterbalance truck and a smaller 3.5 T capacity forklift with a 4.5 T Doosan gas truck, the G45SC. The new Doosan G45SC is capable of working both within the facility and, as it has a lower cab specially fitted, is well suited to unloading containers as well.
"Having just one truck that can be used in our transport area inside and for both yard duties and unloading containers meant that we could take a truck out, which was quite a big cost saving," says Butler.
Rushlift also supplied four of Doosan's latest BR14JW-7 reach trucks, equipped with height pre-selectors and keypad entry for security, along with beacons and flashing lights. The latest AC drive and hydraulic motors on the new model offers powerful performance and the mast reach design and damping system provide excellent stability.
One of the reach trucks is used for perpetual inventory stocktaking, nine hours a day, and the other three are deployed for regular duties.
A further upgrade to Hydrobolt's fleet was the introduction of two new electric 3 T Doosan B30X-7 counterbalance trucks. One is assigned to the dispatch area on the Wolverhampton site, where packing and extra processes are undertaken, such as heat treatment, plating and testing; and the other electric truck is dedicated to general handling activities at the Birmingham operation - and is fitted with a rotator for handling steel coil.
Hydrobolt also received a Doosan LEDH PPT powered pallet truck, useful for its high manoeuvrability in the tight, confined spaces between machining tools. "The powered pallet truck does a brilliant job. We have a large amount of material that is moved around as work-in-progress, so it's invaluable - in fact, it's probably the most used truck on site," says Butler.
Rushlift also recommended and supplied two Combilifts for Hydrobolt's steel bar store.