Bell loaders improving uptime at Slough Heat & Power 15 July 2011

Slough Heat & Power, the waste and recycling subsidiary of Scottish and Southern Energy plc (SSE), has tackled the problem of loading shovels needing maintenance by changing suppliers.

The plant replaced three L120E Volvo wheeled loaders with three L1806E loaders from Bell Equipment.

John Watson, national fuel manager (waste and biomass) for SSE, says that demonstrations on both its woodchip and waste-derived fuel processing sites clinched the deal.

"Prior to the Volvos, we've tried JCB and Komatsu. The Bell machines have proved to be much better at working in our environment than any other machine on the market," states Watson.

Slough Heat & Power now operates one loader in each of its two fuel stores 24 hours a day, with the three machines rotated equally across shifts on a weekly basis, and a third loader acting as a spare in the event of maintenance.

"There are few harsher conditions that a wheeled loader can operate in," explains Watson. "This is why we turned to Bell. Bell's wheeled loaders are the best thing we've come across so far, in terms of their cooling systems and all-round reliability."

That is because of the vehicles' QuadCool cooling system, which comes as standard across the range of Bell loaders. The system places the wide-core radiator, transmission, axle, hydraulic and air-to-air coolers in a separate compartment to the engine – so eliminating debris collection.

In addition, steel access panels, with fine mesh screens, filter cooling air as it enters the QuadCool system. The holes in the screen are substantially smaller than the wide-core radiators, so any debris drawn in passes straight through the system – so extending intervals between cleaning.

Brian Tinham

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