10/01/2009

Hanover, October 2009, the laminate flooring factory in Hausweiler / Saarland is hoping to save costs by using electrical forklifts. Continental's industrial tyres were the first choice thanks to their low roll resistance and excellent stability, even under extremely heavy loads.

Making laminate flooring requires a huge amount of energy, up to 3000 kilowatt hours a day. This reason alone was enough to get the laminate flooring factory to take a critical look at their energy consumption as a whole, which resulted in them setting up their own biomass power station to generate electricity. Today, a kilowatt hour costs no more than 9.6 cents. Equipment Manager Wolfgang Wuschech, who is responsible for all the technical equipment within the factory, looked into the energy consumption of the diesel forklifts used and, after doing some extensive comparisons, made the switch to electric forklifts. As well as the reduced energy consumption and lower maintenance costs, the lower noise levels and reduced odours also spoke out in favour of the electric forklifts with Continental industrial tyres. For Wuschech, the low roll resistance is not the only argument. The service life of between 5000 and 6000 operating hours confirms his choice.

Even singly, the raw laminate boards are heavy, but by the end of the production process they are stacked up in big piles. In order to transport and load these stacks within the factory, heavy electric forklifts made by Italian manufacturer Carer are used in the laminate park. Weighing up to 31 tons each - with batteries weighing in at just under 6 tons - these are enormous machines which can lift up to 16 tons. The stacks are made challenging not only by their weight, but also by their height. The topography of the factory premises represents a further challenge for the tyres. When the boards are taken for packaging at the end of the production process, the forklifts need to overcome an incline of 8.1 percent. The path is covered in smooth tarmac. The goods are then loaded onto HGVs on a concrete floor. The Continental SC15 guarantees safe traction and stability.

As well as the big 16-tonners, smaller electric forklifts weighing just 2 - 3 tons are also used in the laminate park. These more compact forklifts can be used to load the packed goods into the HGVs which come to Heusweiler from all over Europe. The 2 - 3 tonners have Continental SC15 and SC20 tyres and some have CSEasy, the tyre with the new simpler fitting method and even better roll resistance scores.

There are around 20 electric forklifts in everyday use at Heusweiler. "After converting to the electric models, the factory has saved over 30 percent in costs," summarises factory manager Klaus Schug. As not all the new vehicles are fitted with Continental industrial tyres, it is easy for Wuschech to make comparisons. He recognises the benefits of the Continental tyres. However, he is not only convinced by the performance of the black circles from Korbach - he also feels that the service and advice are spot on.