PRODUCTS & EQUIPMENT
Outokumpu avoids downtime with Doosan ‘DPF free’ heavy lifting
million tonnes and a history that stretches back a century to the origins of the highly durable metal alloy. Production facilities cover all continents and are located in Finland, Germany, Mexico, Sweden, the UK and USA, giving rise to sales of 5,960 million euros in 2016. In Sheffield, a city synonymous with the corrosive-resistant material, the company manufactures stainless steel rod coil, which is used in major infrastructure projects across the world, providing longevity to multi- billion pound investments such as skyscrapers, motorways and bridges.
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At the ASR Mill on Stevenson Road, just a mile away from the
IMT March 2018
utokumpu is a global leader in stainless steel production with a crude capacity of 3.1
company’s foundry, huge one- tonne coils of stainless steel rod are produced and meticulously managed through a process that balances the requirements of both the rolling mill, with its tight schedule for manufacturing particular sizes and grades, and the finishing cycle where optimum use of acids depend on careful sequencing of rod sizes and grades. The result is a constant need for storing and retrieving heavy coils of metal throughout the production cycle.
Handling large loads in such a punishing environment and to a demanding schedule calls for a robust and reliable forklift truck fleet. Failure to perform at any point can have a significant impact on the production cycle, affecting customer orders and tight time- lines.
“Any forklift truck downtime can be critical for us,” says Phil Sowerby, Engineering Manager at Outokumpu. “We are on a constrained site, so we have to use forklift trucks to move coils between processes – whether it’s annealing, to get the properties we want, or descaling products. Then, of course, we use trucks to bundle up particular products for an order – customers order various sizes, shapes and grades of stainless steel rod, so we also need reliable trucks to load lorries for despatch.” Realising that the time was coming to renew the fleet, a particular concern for Phil Sowerby was the industry-wide use of Diesel Particulate Filters (DPFs) on new diesel forklift trucks – needed by most manufacturers to comply with the latest EU emission standards. Such filters require a
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regeneration cycle to be performed every 25 hours or so, significantly increasing downtime and fuel costs and negatively impacting on-site performance. Fortunately, there is an alternative.
After many years of running a mixed fleet, consisting of Doosan trucks and others, Outokumpu took a strategic decision to source a fleet of new forklift trucks from a single supplier. As there was a long-established service and support relationship with Ability Handling, Doosan’s local dealer, Phil Sowerby was introduced to Doosan’s latest 5.5 tonne capacity D55 Diesel counterbalance truck – which comes complete with the revolutionary Doosan designed “DPF free” G2 diesel engine as standard.
Clever design of the combustion chambers and piston heads,
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