News from Tiger Trailers: Business is booming for commercial vehicle body builder Tiger Trailers who selected overhead cranes from Street Crane Company as an integral element in the production system at their new factory.
One five tonne and two three tonne overhead cranes were installed in the spring to ensure efficient materials handling. An additional five tonne crane has now been ordered to increase handling and lifting capacity.
Tiger is a new entrant to the commercial vehicle market and started in April 2014. Since then they have been winning orders from leading national logistics and retail companies for its trailer vans, curtain side trailers, double deck trailers and bespoke rigid bodywork. The company operate two separate production lines and the cranes play a crucial role ensuring efficient material flow during vehicle assembly. Having two cranes in each assembly bay will ensure crane availability at all times, avoiding downtime and boosting productivity.
Tiger Trailers is run by John and Steven Cartwright as joint Managing Directors. Both brothers have extensive experience in the industry and with a clean sheet of paper set about creating a flexible factory to deliver a high quality product efficiently. John explained, “We have previous experience of Street’s equipment and have found that this gives the reliable performance that we need to keep production moving. Having two cranes in each bay gives us greater manufacturing flexibility and ensures that our fitters are not standing around waiting for material or for a fabrication to be moved on to the next production stage.”
The cranes installed are all single girder, box beam, units fitted with Street’s advanced ZX series low headroom hoists. Cranes in each bay work independently from a common gantry and so have anti-collision systems installed. Compact loads can be lifted by a standard hook arrangement or may also be handled with a hook mounted lifting beam for longer or more cumbersome loads. Remote radio controllers allow the crane operator to select a position of safety that gives a good view of lifting, moving and load placement. Pendant control is provided as back-up should the need arise.