INTERMODAL & LOGISTICS
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Machines tailor-made for midsized intermodal sites Lifting equipment provider Combilift has a long history of research and development, and marketleading innovation. Jarad Wilson tells Rail Express about a pair of machines ideal for Australia’s numerous midsized regional intermodal sites.
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OMBILIFT WAS ESTABLISHED IN Ireland by cofounders Robert Moffett and Martin McVicar in 1998. Since its inception it has grown to sell 40,000 units in 85 countries including Australia, which over the last 17 years, has become Combilift’s fifth-largest export market. “Combilift has set the benchmark for the mass production of customised innovative products,” McVicar, now the company’s managing director, said at the opening of a new 46,500 square metre, purpose-built facility in Monaghan, Ireland in 2018. “Mass customisation is the new frontier for both the customer and the manufacturer as customers are increasingly expecting products to be tailored to their requirements.” Margins are tight even for Australia’s largest intermodal operators, and for the nation’s midsized regional terminals, this is magnified even further. “The issue in the market is equipment used to load and unload trains tends to be designed for larger scale operations with a higher capacity,” Jarad Wilson, Combilift’s Straddle Carrier Production Manager in Asia Pacific,
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ISSUE 2 2019 | RAIL EXPRESS
explains to Rail Express. “This level of capital and operational cost can be prohibitive for midsized operators who only need to be able to load or unload one or two trains a day.” Much of Combilift’s success has been built on the mantra of ‘customer-based innovation’. Wilson says this approach has helped the company develop and refine a pair of products ideal to Australia’s midsized market: the Combi Intermodal Straddle Carrier, and the Combi Xpress Straddle Carrier.
Combi IMSC a real alternative to forklifts and reach stackers
Combilift’s Intermodal Straddle Carrier, or IMSC, was initially designed to respond to a midsized Dutch intermodal terminal, looking to unload trains quickly. “The IMSC design draws on existing straddle carriers, but aims to fill this space in the market,” Wilson outlines. “This is the only machine of it type currently in the Australian market for midsized operations. It’s a simple piece of diesel hydraulic lifting equipment, without the capital expenditure, and
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Combilift has set the benchmark for the mass production of customised innovative products
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www.railexpress.com.au
