Three-Minute Container Loading from Combilift’s CSS

Combilift’s latest innovation, the Combilift Container Slip-Sheet (Combi-CSS), has been designed for quicker and easier mechanised loading of products (particularly long ones) into containers. First unveiled during Combilift’s 20th anniversary last year, this product is now in serial production. The Combi-CSS addresses the challenges associated with the combination of forklifts and manual labour often required for this application.

Using a forklift to lift and manoeuvre the product laterally into the container and another forklift operator to push the load into the container from the end is time consuming and not overly efficient. Following the launch of the Combilift Straddle Carrier a few years ago, feedback from customers in the containerisation sector prompted Combilift to look at how these procedures could be improved.

The result is the patented Combi-CSS; a low, free-standing platform with a dual-directional motor-driven pulling mechanism, on which a Hardox 500 steel sheet rests. It has a capacity of 30,000kg and allows a full load of product to be prepared behind the container on the sheet and loaded onto a 20’ container in just three minutes (and six for a 40’ container).

Once loaded, the sheet is guided into the container by the mechanism underneath, which consists of four hydraulic cylinders moving in sequence. Hydraulic pins on the ends of the cylinders move up, fitting into holes cut into the sheet to secure it, while the cylinders pull the sheet forward, ensuring safe loading without any risk of product damage.

When the goods are fully loaded within the container, a hydraulic rear barrier gate, fixed to the end of the platform, swings across the container opening and is locked in place across the entire width of the platform. This holds the material within the container while the metal sheet is slipped out from underneath it, hence the name.

Combilift MD Martin McVicar said: “I am confident that companies dealing with containers will embrace this new product, as they did the Straddle Carrier, due to the improvements it offers in terms of safety, speed and efficiency.”