As more and more materials become containerised the need for safe handling has become a concern for more than the ports and terminals handling them in large volumes and is now a major issue for industrial end users who may see several containers per day arriving on site.

We were consulted by one of our freight forwarding customers to assist them with equipment for handling regular container deliveries for a mine expansion. The end user has strict safety regulations and wanted a solution that would ensure that containers would be handled safely in a busy environment with a large volume of heavy vehicle traffic and personnel in the vicinity.

Typically minesites move containers with mobile cranes - this can be time consuming as it involves someone physically slinging each of the four corners of the container to the hookblock. Our initial proposal was to supply semi-automatic fixed beam container spreaders (these are I shaped beams sized to fit 20 or 40 ft containers with a twistlock at each corner that can easily be picked up by a crane and dropped onto a container automatically engaging the twistlock pockets quickly and safely). The volume of containers was such that it was decided that even with this efficiency the unloading would monopolise the time of the mobile cranes on site so we were asked to come up with a dedicated machine.

Our solution was to supply a 42 tonne SMV42-1200B Konecranes SMV masted forklift with a fork mounted detachable container spreader. Using a dedicated container spreader is really the safest and most efficient way of moving containers around but the detachable version means that the same machine can quickly drop the spreader and enable the machine also to be used for handling project cargo using regular 2400mm forks - a fairly common requirement on a busy minesite. This versatile machine has proved a great success and has remained busy on site long after the original contract was completed.

This is just one example of the expertise in handling we can offer in conjunction with our products. If you have a bespoke requirement for any of our equipment please feel free to contact us for advice.