NEW IDEAS INCREAS FFICIENCY
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By Alan Smith
CONTROLLED by two-way radio, the fleet of Davey, Paxman and Co., Ltd., Colchester, is managed by progressive executives receptive to new ideas. Vehicles and workshops are superbly equipped, although the fleet is small, and the maintenance routine combines thoroughness with flexibility.
The company, have two works in the town. At Standard Works, the bigger, oil engines for ships. rail locomotives and static installations, and boilers and rotary vacuum filters are constructed. Britannia Works assembles air compressors, manufactures spare parts and machines bar. There is also an aerodrome store 4+ miles away, but this will no longer be used when storage capacity at the Standard Works site has been expanded.
Except for urgent supplies, outside transport is used to bring material to Standard Works. Three-quarters is delivered by road, much of the remaining proportion comprising heavy plate, which is rail-borne. Finished products are usually carried away by specialist movers of abnormal indivisible loads, although service engineers' vans are used for delivering urgently required spare parts.
Incalculable Benefit
The main task of the ancillary vehicles is the movement of material and components from one part of the establishments to another for fabrication, and the weekly tonnage carried averages 500. Radio control cuts delays and has been found incalculably to raise the usefulness of the units to which it has been applied.
Mr. E. N. Farrar, chief plant engineer, could not express this improvement in specific terms so far as road vehicles were concerned, one reason being that factory production had risen since radio was introduced five years ago. (The company claim to be pioneers in the use of radio for internal factory transport.) But taking fork trucks for the purpose of a comparison. he said that if eight such units and radio were intro c16
duced, in his experience it would probably be found that at least one truck could be struck off strength with no impairment of efficiency.
Even such an admittedly empirical assessment of the value of radio reflected its worth in capital outlay, but he felt that greater advantages, which could not be expressed in cash terms, lay in the constant contact that it was possible to keep with drivers. Before radio was used, drivers reported to the transport office for jobs, either personally or by telephone. Direct radio control had saved a great many man-hours.
The telephone was sometimes used with reticence by drivers, perhaps because senior members of the company would he within earshot. For example, a driver might find some obstacle which he would require to be shifted and have to approach a shop foreman for its removal. Now he informs the transport office by radio, and his own superior, Mr. W. E. Ward, transport supervisor, by calling a colleague responsible. smooths the way for him.
Drivers have, in fact, pressed for radio installations. At first, four vehicles were so equipped and now there are 10. One vehicle, employed almost entirely on runs
between the two works, was not at first thought likely greatly to benefit by radio control because of the fairly regular nature of its employment. The driver considered otherwise and radio was fitted.
The result has been great reductions in unloading times. Before arrival with a load, the driver informs the transport office of his consignments and the parts of the works for which they are destined.Works trucks are detailed to be ready to meet the vehicle, which can be turned round in a short time. About five return journeys are made daily.
Articulated vehicles are exploited for internal movements. There are a Bedford-Scammell and a Seamrnell Scarab tractor, with another Scammell mechanical-horse tractor held in reserve. Semi-trailers comprise-eight 6-ton units, three of which have sided bodies, two I0-ton outfits suitable for moving engines, a long vehicle for carrying plate, and a tipping unit for fuel.
Rigid vehicles used in the works area are a Bedford 5-tonner and a Dennis 5-ton tipper. The Dennis has an Eagle body suitable for either refuse collection or normal haulage. The top portion of the drop-sided body comprises . a framework 'with sliding shutters and is removable by crane. The vehicle makes a refuse-collection round every morning and carries its load to the local tip. In four weeks, about 70 tons of refuse is disposed of. Other features of the Dennis are a generously glazed cab and a periscope-type rear-view mirror in the roof.
The vehicles mentioned are rebuilt ex-W.D. types. They have petrol engines, but replacements will be oilers. In addition, and for road work, the company have a Bedford 30-cwt. van, a Bedford 10-cwt. van based in London, two Austin A40 vans and four Morris 10-cwt. vans for service engineers. The bigger Bedford van has a Spurling body with an aperture measuring 3 ft. long
by 1 ft. 6 in. wide in the roof at the rear to permit
loading by crane. Personnel may be carried and a window is provided in the front bulkhead for their benefit.
Doyen of Fleet There is also an A40 van converted into a fire appliance. This was described in The Commercial
Motor on April 13. Doyen of the fleet is a 1929 Austin ambulance made into a "tea wagon," complete with gay canvas awning at the rear. Part of the works area is at sunken level and a fork-lift truck is used to bring the canteen vehicle down and to return it.
Works appliances comprise two Rapier Centurn 6-ton cranes, a Rapier 6-ton crane of conventional layout, and a 1-ton mobile crane. The Centurns have mechanical means for extending and withdrawing the jibs. Current for magnetic lifting appliances is generated from ancillary Petter units.
A Coventry Climax 1-ton fork-lift truck is used in the .machine • shop, a Ransomes 1-tonner in the boiler shop and a 2-tonner in the spares dispatch department. The Coventry Climax has an oil engine whilst the others
are battery-electrics. An American Towmotor 6.000-1b. c18 fork-lift truck continues a long period of service, and there are, in addition, two Coventry Climax 3-ton models on general call and equipped with radio. Crane books and skips for swarf collection are held for use. The . company's pallets measure 4 ft. by 3 ft.
Glazed Cabs
Other works trucks are a Ransomes 1-ton tractor, and six Ransomes battery-electric platform trucks, four of which are .1-tonners and two 2-tonners. A 1-ton and a 2-ton platform truck are radio-equipped. Appliances which work in outside areas have cabs, the roofs of which are glazed for upward visibility.
Records are kept of the daily tonnages handled by radio-controlled vehicles and appliances. Drivers are given sheets on which to note details of movements and these are aggregated on master sheets to show weights shifted per four-week period. This check also applies to certain other units controlled by the transport department, including a Muir-Hill dumper and a Chasesicle shovel.
The company's garage is a blister hangar 120 ft. long by 90 ft. wide. It is insulated with Cellotex panelling and heat is supplied by two large radiators, taken from Davey Paxman engines, which are connected to the works' hot-water system. Fans impel air through the radiators.
Rain Water Collected
Two 100-gal, tanks are used for containing water for topping-up cooling systems. Capable of being moved by a fork-lift truck, one is stood outside to collect rain water while the other is in use. The garage is connected to the factory compressed-air system but has a reservoir of compressed air for tyre inflation in case of breakdown.
The pit area is shaped like two capital Ts joined together by their horizontal strokes, and is illuminated with fluorescent lamps and separately heated. The pit walls are painted with Vitretex white paint. A braketester of tije roller type is to be installed and a recent acquisition was a Lucas Beamsetter. Previously, ruled markings in a corner of the garage were used for headlamp adjustment. There are two Dictograph loudspeaker systems, one for B.B.C. relay and internal messages, and the other for radio operators to summon persons to the telephone.
For removal of heavy components, a gantry and chain block and a floor crane with a Mini-lift hoist are
used. Front-wheel alignment is checked by a Weaver gauge of the drive-on type. Side thrust of the wheel causes a needle to indicate the amount of running out of track in feet per mile. A new AC Plug Doctor, by means of which a sparking plug can be blasted and cleaned without needing to be removed from the rubber socket, has been obtained. Other equipment includes a Churchill valve grinder, a Crypton battery charger, a Weaver steam jenny and a Motrate portable lubricator.
The lubricator has been found as effective as pneumatic greasing plant, although care has to be taken not to damage the fine nozzle. Inspection lamps may be plugged into one of a number of 24-v. sockets. Mainspressure washing is performed in the washing bay, which is large enough to take a 30-cwt. van. Larger vehicles are cleaned outside. A suction cleaner is used for interiors of cabs and bodies.
In the charging bay for battery-electric vehicles, Legg plant is installed on a framework down the centre so that vehicles may draw up on each side, and above head height so that trucks can be driven through.
• Air Locks Save Heat
On factory roads, large mirrors are placed at junctions. At the gate, which has a counter-balanced bar, a mirror enables the police to see inside a lorry body. Great emphasis is placed upon the maintenance of heat in working areas, and those appliances running in and out of buildings have to pass through air locks.
Heaters are found in all vehicles that require them, and other accessories fitted to vans are windscreen washers, fire extinguishers and twin wing mirrors of the Magnatex Viewmaster or Desmo Boomerang type. As amber flashing indicators are preferred to white and red, vehicles are modified accordingly. A Morris 10-cwt. van has been converted so that the standard front side lights were fitted with amber glasses and indicator bulbs, and Austin-type side lights were mounted on the wings. At the rear, separate indicators were mounted on the door pillars about 4 ft. from the ground.
Maintenance procedure has lately been modified. As the result of a visit to the Hendon Vehicle Testing Station, Mr. Farrar has added new checks to inspection routines at various intervals. These are a test to see whether the brake lights come on with light pedal pressure, whether the wiper blades are in good condition and the arm pressure correct, and whether the window in the driver's door may easily be wound down.
Each vehicle has a mileage record chart comprising lines marked off in 100-mile divisions. At the end of each week, the appropriate number of divisions representing the week's mileage is marked in blue, and it can be seen when the vehicles are due for their routine checks.
Maintenance Cards
These are at mileage intervals varied according to types of vehicle. The routines performed at the stipulated periods are listed on cards known respectively as TIO, TI! and T12. Noted on a TIO—which may apply at 500-1,000 miles—are a greasing, dynamo check, oilpressure check and similar relatively minor operations. A TI!, at 3,000-6,000 miles, requires an oil change in sump, gearbox and rear axle, tappet adjustment, compression test, plug-cleaning, examinations of clutch; pedal movement, engine tuning and adjustment of contact-breaker gap. Decarbonizing is required by the T12 at 10,000-12,000 miles, together with removal of the sump for cleaning, a wiring test, regrinding of the brake drums, if necessary, and tightening of body and engine bolts.
Numbers of these cards are printed and modified in
slight detail to suit various types of vehicle. For example, vehicles with S.U. carburetters have an item for topping-up dashpots. The TIO routines are flexibly applied. If a vehicle cannot be attended to until it has substantially exceeded the scheduled mileage interval, the following TIO check is suitably advanced so that it will not occur needlessly soon.
Costs are thoroughly recorded and are analysed in relation to tonnage carried every four weeks. Depreciation is spread over five years. In a recent four-week period, three oil-engined and two battery-electric works trucks moved 1,521 tons of material at a cost of £223 15s. 6d., plus overheads.