Sidetrackers deliver the goods

Three Sidetracker multi-directional sideloaders with 15 years' service behind them have crossed the Pennines from Lancashire to Nottinghamshire and are maximising storage space for their new owner, a leading manufacturer of PVC-U extrusions.

Since its formation in 1980 Synseal Extrusions Ltd has evolved and expanded and now supplies PVC-U window, door and conservatory systems to several hundred fabrication and installation companies throughout the UK.  Following the purchase of K2 Conservatories in Lancashire, where the Sidetrackers had been based, Synseal re-located them along with the cantilever racking to its main site in Nottinghamshire.

The trucks handle extrusions up to 6.5 metres long stored in the same cantilever racking layout used at K2 in Blackburn.  They are all SO30B models with a three-tonne capacity at 400mm load centres and a lift height of seven metres.  The narrow design has allowed racking aisles to be reduced to 1710mm wide, maximising storage space. The sideloaders travel along the aisles and reach into the racking to handle a load, while in the free-movement areas they can travel in any direction and rotate on their own axis.

Stand-on operation gives drivers good all-round visibility, even at the full lift height, and they can adjust fork spread easily from 750mm to 2380mm to suit different loads.  The trucks are battery-powered and have twin electro-hydraulic motors that automatically run singly or together via a high-torque hydrostatic transmission system to a single high-grip drive wheel, which provides good traction in a wide range of conditions.

Synseal's site in Nottinghamshire is the third location for the Sidetrackers and associated racking.  They were first used by the Burnden Group in Bolton, Lancashire, before moving to a new distribution centre at Blackburn and then on to their current owner, Synseal.