Edbro, the world’s leading brand of hydraulic tipping solutions for commercial vehicles, has used its high-tech manufacturing facilities to design and build a customised 50-tonne tipper in a matter of weeks. When EMR needed a cylinder for its new off-road tipper, it thought it would have to import a solution; fortunately the JOST-owned brand could capitalise on its experience in foreign markets to offer a product capable of lifting the heavy load.
EMR, a global leader in metal recycling, needed a new tipping vehicle which would be suitable for transporting scrap metal around its Teesside-based scrap yard. As the vehicle would be operating off-road the decision was made to specify a truck capable of carrying more than the 44 tonne legal road limit, maximising its efficiency. The company approached Swan Commercial Bodies, a Lancashire-based body builder that specialises in on and off-road vehicles for the scrap industry, to build the vehicle. Swan, in turn, approached Edbro.
Danny Broomfield, UK Business Development Manager for JOST, comments: “In the UK it is quite rare that a vehicle is specified over the 44-tonne road limit; it’s even rarer for a tipper to be specified. Because of this, the majority of UK manufacturers don’t have the capability to produce suitable tippers and hence have to import them at extra expense. Unlike the majority we have manufacturing facilities which are geared to supply foreign markets, so are capable of producing a 50-tonne tipping cylinder.”
Since it developed the first tipping hoist to be powered by a truck engine in 1916, Edbro has been at the forefront of tipping technologies for commercial vehicles. The brand manufactures all of its products at its facilities in Bolton, the JOST UK headquarters, and exports them to markets around the world. The company follows a dedicated programme of continued investment in its design and manufacturing departments to ensure that its tippers are the lightest, fastest and strongest on the market.
In foreign markets such as the Middle East, larger tipping vehicles are far more common as weight restrictions don’t apply. This means that Edbro has developed its UK manufacturing capabilities to produce cylinders which are far larger than the UK norm (its largest standard product can tip up to 90 tonnes). It was able to design and manufacture bespoke, a 50-tonne cylinder for EMR, from within the UK, which meant that lead times were reduced and no import duties levied.
Danny continues: “Because Edbro has resisted the temptation to shift its manufacturing to overseas sites, we are able to react swiftly to requests for customised tipping solutions. Our experience in other markets also means that our manufacturing capabilities extend beyond the normal requirements for UK vehicles. In this instance, we were able to design a bespoke solution for the EMR vehicle, manufacture and deliver it within five weeks. The design, based around our CS range of front end cylinders, offers the same ‘fit and forget’ reliability. Since the last order the cylinder has worked so well that we have already been approached to supply similar cylinders for vehicles on some of EMR’s other UK sites.”