At this year's Tip Ex, trailer manufacturer Paneltex Martrans exhibited the latest development of its walking floor trailer, with the trailer on display in the livery of customer Aggregate Industries and incorporating a number of additional features, including a lighter overall weight construction and new planksider bodywork with insulated sidewalls.
According to Chris Berridge, Managing Director, Paneltex Ltd, the parent company of Martrans, "The walking floor trailer has been designed specifically for the construction industry to provide a better, safer means of transporting asphalt and loose aggregates. Eliminating the need for tipping altogether means the trailer can be used safely in any location, and the payload gain compared with a typical eight wheel rigid tipper gives a massive efficiency benefit."
By working closely with major aggregate producers in the UK, Paneltex Martrans has been able to refine the design of its established walking floor light-weight bulk trailer, enhancing the performance and effectiveness of these trailers whilst significantly reducing the trailer tare weight so that the trailer now only weighs 7950kgs. With up to a 28tonne capacity, the Martrans walking floor trailer can also be discharged in approximately 4 minutes, whilst also sweeping the trailer completely clean following discharge, allowing a much faster turnaround.
In conjunction with the latest version of its trailer, Paneltex Martrans has produced a You Tube style video showing the trailer working in typical operating conditions. This video can be viewed on the Paneltex Martrans website.
With the Martrans walking floor trailer, operators are able to work safely on any type of hard or uneven surface, discharging either aggregate or coated products. The trailers can be used to discharge without any conflicting issues with bridges, tunnels, trees, telephone or power cabling, minimising any unwanted health and safety issues.
With its walking floor mechanism, the trailer also enables operators to have much greater control of the aggregate discharge than with a standard rigid or articulated trailer and the discharge can be easily stopped to allow more efficient working around road junctions or areas with obstacles.
Increased payload and proven operating efficiencies are also significant beneficial factors with the Paneltex Martrans walking floor trailer. Compared to a standard rigid 8 wheel tipper, these trailers carry approximately 40% more payload. For example, on a typical 140 tonne consignment of products, the trailer only has to complete 5 loads in a typical working day, in comparison with the 8 loads needed by an 8 wheeler. This obviously results in significant savings in cost, road congestion as well as vehicle emissions.
Finally, further cost savings are possible with the Martrans walking floor trailer, particularly with regards to the discharge of coated product in to pavers. Because of the reduction in loads necessary and the speed of manoeuvring the trailer into position, this can save on average over 30 minutes a day when unloading coated products into pavers.