Cooper Specialised Handling Ltd, is reporting the two Sany 4540 GC series intermodal reach stackers have entered service at the ABP Hams Hall Rail Freight Terminal near Sutton Coldfield.
Located just 8 miles from the centre of Birmingham in the heart of the Midlands, ABP Hams Hall is a key national inter-modal hub. The site is situated adjacent to the Nuneaton-to-Birmingham railway line and handles deep-sea and short-sea traffic to and from ports such as Southampton, London Gateway Felixstowe and domestic traffic from Scotland. The site regularly services six rail services every day and runs a core fleet of 8 reachstackers to service both rail and road operations.
The new 4540 GC is the 7000mm equivalent of the increasing-popular 4531 general yard reach stacker which features an 11-litre Volvo engine, Dana 4-speed transmission and Kessler D106 drive axle. The machine is also supplied with Sany’s unique sliding rear ballast to enhance residual capacity without having to slow the operation down with jacks. For high residual lifts, a jacking system is available to the operator which combines the benefits of a large single plate to distribute the load over the largest possible surface area and a cam arrangement to accelerate the speed of deploying jacks.
The jacks and residual capacity arrangements brought a specific comment from David Cooper, Executive Director of Cooper SH who said “In reachstacker inter-modal operations operators jacking operations slow driver’s down and they only use jacks as an absolute last resort. The sliding ballast helps here and could be the difference between lifting and not lifting without jacks, but its deployment is immediate. Delays in deploying jacks, whilst only matter of seconds down and seconds upwards, accumulate over a working week so time saving in jack deployment increases productivity.” It is understood that with the capacity of the 7000mm wheelbase, the sliding ballast and the jacks, will provide ABP Hams Hall with their highest rating capacity machine to lift-off the second rail lines.
Mark Thompson, Head of Asset Management for ABP said “ABP Hams Hall is a strategic site where we depend upon high performance, reliability and machine availability. We look forward to seeing how the Sanys perform alongside the established brands”
Other features on the Sany machines include a hydraulic sliding cabin, heads-up display as well as an Elme 817 toplift spreader which represents a first for Sany in the UK complete with Elme’s ‘soft landing’ system that softens the last 150mm of twistlock engagement.
The two new Sany machines make-up the balance of an 8-number strong reachstacker fleet used at ABP Hams Hall all of which are maintained by Cooper’s own maintenance division in a partnership that marked its 10th anniversary earlier this year.
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Editor’s Notes
Operating in all sectors of heavy lifting across the UK and Ireland, Cooper Specialised Handling is the exclusive UK distributor for SveTruck, RAM Spreaders, Telestack bulk material handling conveying systems and Sany mobile handling equipment, sole UK importer and exclusive distributor for Mantsinen cranes, Movella Translifters, TEC Containers and a long-term specialist in Konecranes lift trucks. The company, which celebrated 20 years in business in 2018, also has a dedicated after-sales division, Cooper Handling Solutions, which specialises in engineering support.
Independently owned, Cooper offers total solutions in both solids and bulk handling. Its customised solutions comprise high quality, high value products and reliable service for businesses operating in the most challenging heavy handling environments, including ports, freight handling, inter-modal terminals, manufacturing and other heavy lifting industries.