Linde Material Handling (UK) Ltd has installed three K range very narrow aisle trucks at the recently expanded Davies Turner freight and logistics hub in Bristol. To enable pallet retrieval from this location, Davies Turner needed a truck with a substantial lift height capability of over 16 metres - an industry first. Linde, one of the world's leading manufacturers of forklifts and warehouse equipment, was able to effectively deliver the solution. The lift heights of these newly acquired Linde trucks currently exceed those of any application on record.

The new Davies Turner hub, comprised of two warehouses, now occupies 21,000 square metres and employs more than 100 staff. The premises where the Linde equipment operates comprise nearly 15,000 square metres of storage and houses 8,000 pallet locations in the high bay racking plus four mezzanine floors for pick/pack and order-sorting. In order to maximise the use of valuable floor space, the warehouse is racked right to the eaves of the building and the mezzanines are built above the ground-floor dispatch area.

For this unique application specialised materials handling equipment was necessary and Davies Turner discovered that only one supplier could meet its requirements.

The Linde K range of man-up very narrow aisle trucks were originally targeted because of their suitability for this type of application. The trucks are of modular design, where major components and truck systems are chosen to exactly match the application. Configuration software analyses the site and application requirements, and provides the perfect match from a potential 500,000 permutations. This pick-and-mix option for Davies Turner allowed the company to specify its exact requirements and not opt for a 'one size fits all' scenario.

Roger Lucy, Director for Davies Turner said, "Linde were able to meet the specific requirements that we had in Avonmouth. They helped us gain maximum benefit from our new building and I am very pleased with the final outcome."

Additional Truck and Specialised Training Features: The K range trucks can lift loads of 1000 kg to the maximum height. They are capable of working in aisles of only 2080 mm wide between rack-faces. Pick and deposit stations are situated on each mezzanine level, allowing the trucks to place loads on and quickly retrieve them from each mezzanine.

Features of this range include synchronised reach and rotate allowing trucks to handle loads on either side of the working aisle, without the truck needing to exit the aisle to re-orientate the forks. The trucks use inductive wire guidance in the aisle and are able to lift and travel simultaneously enabling fast operation and optimising productive use of valuable time.

Part of the Linde package also included training one of the five Davies Turner operators at Linde's headquarters in Basingstoke on a 'train the trainer' course enabling him to train his colleagues in the safe operation of this specialised equipment.

Davies Turner also operates a Linde E 20 P electric counterbalance truck to load and unload road transport vehicles as well as a T 16 electric pallet tuck, which is used for general load transfer.