Radiator and boiler manufacturer Ideal Stelrad Group says it will save 30% on energy use and cut 300 tonnes of carbon with a new materials handling fleet for its radiator factory and national distribution centre.

Ideal Stelrad is using Yale forklifts and materials handling equipment at its 150,000 sq ft facility in Mexborough, Rotherham. The equipment has been supplied by distributor Forkway in partnership with UK distributor Briggs Equipment.

The fleet is being used to unload 20 deliveries per day, plus pick more than 12,800 items.
Eighteen Yale MP20X pallet trucks have been fitted with longer forks and repositioned load wheels so they can handle the 300 different pallet sizes and configurations in the distribution centre. Lifting up to 1.4 tonnes, they also have HD cameras and monitors to help with load positioning. Also in use in the distribution centre – which operates 24 hours a day, five days a week – are reach trucks and counterbalance forklift trucks.

The radiator manufacturing facility, on the same site, uses a range of equipment to lift radiator fins on to the line and to take finished goods off the packaging machine and move them to despatch. Other equipment in the factory includes pallet trucks, five LPG counterbalanced forklifts and six reach trucks.

Forkway specified a battery charging station for the site that uses 30% less energy and gives savings of 300 tonnes of CO2 over the contract term.