Trailer manufacturers Martrans Ltd is converting to high strength steels on all their constructions for tippers and semi-trailers.
Since last year they have used Domex in all their products.
“Payload is money in the bank”, says Morris Abbot, Managing Director at Martrans Ltd. “You can build lighter and stronger. But it’s a developing process”, he continues and points at the 30 feet frame of a tipper Martrans is showing at Tip-ex08.
“Here we have downsized the cross section. We get very good help from SSAB with the stress calculations. In the development process we go over everything to reduce material – beams, cross members, reinforcements and so on”.
Constructions that make use of the properties of high strength steel are both lighter and stronger which increases payload and gives a host of other advantages to improve competitiveness. Initially though, some customers may feel that certain properties of the steel are unfamiliar
“With Domex you don’t need to build as stiffly as with a conventional construction. Domex has much better memory than mild steel, and you have to make use of that property”, says Morris Abbot.
It gave Martrans Ltd a bit of a pedagogic challenge when they built a trailer for lumber with a hydraulic crane.
“We had to convince the drivers to be confident when the platform bowed when they were operating the crane. That this behaviour is ok with Domex”.
Martrans Ltd sells tippers and semitrailers all over Europe. The market for tippers has been growing rapidly in Eastern Europe.
“But it seems like the UK market is even more aware of the need to get as much payload as possible. In the UK payload is the argument, especially when working with blue-chip companies.”
He gives a simple example: “In everyday transport one single extra tonne payload means a lot. If a vehicle takes 6 loads a day, that makes 6 extra tonnes. Count on £6-10 a tonne and you get a lot of money, Morris Abbot concludes.”