In-house heavy-duty transportation
Platform truck
40 tons moved with pinpoint accuracy

The Austrian company Binder+Co AG uses a Hubtex SFX electric platform truck with a payload of 40 tons and multidirectional steering for the in-house transport of raw materials, semi-finished and finished bulk material processing plants.

Ever larger, ever heavier, ever more powerful: this trend also applies to the bulk material processing plants of Binder+Co AG. On average, the machines which are in demand worldwide weigh around 20 tons. Individual machines can even weigh up to 40 tons. The infrastructure on the premises of the long-established company in Gleisdorf, Austria, was not designed for these dimensions. The gantry cranes installed here in the open-air warehouse and in the halls lift a maximum of 15 to 20 tons.

"We always had to hire external mobile cranes with the corresponding lifting capacity for the set-up and removal of fully assembled processing systems," recalls Armin Fuchs, who is responsible for operational technology at Binder+Co. This solution was not only costly, but also inflexible. Unforeseeable delays in the production process contrasted with the previously agreed operating days of the rental cranes, which could not be rescheduled at short notice.

 

Upgrading the outdoor crane would have been too expensive

With this in mind, Binder+Co set out to find a suitable transport vehicle with a load capacity of 40 t that could operate inside and outside the halls. "Upgrading our outdoor crane would have been too expensive and only feasible in the long term," says Fuchs, who enquired with various manufacturers of industrial trucks as part of his research. The search was fruitless until Fuchs came across the SFX heavy-duty platform transporters from Hubtex on the Internet.

 "The experts from Hubtex were quickly on site, inspected the premises and invited us to a reference visit to a nearby customer with similar requirements," reports Fuchs. "In the course of the discussions, we jointly developed the idea of equipping the electric platform truck with an additional lifting function," recalls Michael Schulz, who is responsible for Hubtex sales in Austria.

"This means that the customised version of the SFX built for Binder+Co can not only transport loads, but also pick them up independently," adds Stephan Rückert, specialist for heavy-duty transport systems at Hubtex. For this purpose, Binder+Co invested in four swap bodies with a load capacity of 15 and 40 tonnes respectively. Three further swap bodies are currently under construction.

 

Manoeuvring with millimetre precision

 

"Thanks to the lifting function, we can use the existing gantry cranes much more efficiently because they can now preload the swap bodies with a time delay," explains Fuchs, who also likes the ease of operation of the SFX 40 with multidirectional steering. All eight wheels of the platform transporter can be steered hydraulically and precisely via a remote control, making it easy to manoeuvre with millimetre precision in the narrow halls.

The control panel is equipped with two joysticks for driving and steering. The wheels return to the straight-ahead position when the joystick is released. A selector switch can be used to select various driving programmes such as longitudinal and transverse driving. There are also programmes for all-wheel, diagonal, front and rear axle steering as well as circular driving. The ergonomic operating concept has been well received by the employees: "The four colleagues who have been trained on the vehicle really enjoy operating the machine," emphasises Fuchs.
The vehicle is driven by four wheel gears, each with four 12.6 kW three-phase motors, which propel the vehicle at 3 km/h loaded and unloaded. The capacity of the 80 volt battery with an output of 750 Ah is completely sufficient, especially as the platform trailer is only used irregularly and for around one hour per day. The charging time for a full battery charge is 6.5 to 7 hours.

 

Improved utilisation of company premises

The 15 t vehicle is 7,500 mm long, 2,500 mm wide and 980 mm high. Two of the eight hydraulically steered axle bogies are mounted on four longitudinal rockers, which are installed directly on the frame. This pendulum chassis can be used to drive over the rails laid on the company premises and overcome gradients of up to eight per cent. "The heavy-duty platform transporter from Hubtex can reach any point on our extensive premises, which has made us much more flexible when it comes to choosing storage locations. We can now utilise the site much better," says Fuchs, explaining another advantage of the SFX 40, which has been in use at Binder+Co since February 2023.

Conclusion: Binder+Co achieves a number of positive effects with the Hubtex SFX 40 electric platform transporter. Bulk material processing systems weighing up to 40 tonnes can now be transported across the entire company premises and between the various halls and production stages without the need for costly hired mobile cranes. Thanks to the lifting function and the use of interchangeable racks, several racks can be pre-loaded, allowing the existing gantry cranes to work in a time-delayed and highly efficient manner.