Petit Forestier Free Up Space With Stertil Koni Lifts

Stertil Koni has supplied a set of four heavy duty mobile column vehicle lifts to ensure maximum use of workshop space for Petit Forestier at the company’s site in Bicester, Oxfordshire.

“We recently recruited an additional HGV engineer and needed a reliable vehicle lifting solution,” says Nigel Baylis, General Manager. “As a Group, we have used Stertil Koni lifts for many years so we had no doubts about their performance and reliability.  Also, the workshop space at Bicester is fairly limited and the portability of the new lifts enables us to maximise the use of available space at all times.”

COMPANY

Established over 100 years ago, the Petit Forestier Group is the acknowledged European leader in refrigeration rentals including display units, containers, cold storage and refrigerated vehicles.  Continual investment has seen the Group develop and expand its range of services and now supports 280 sites employing over 4000 people.  The Group’s fleet of 53,000 vehicles includes a wide range of refrigerated lorries, trucks, trailers and vans. At the Bicester complex, the Stertil Koni mobile column vehicle lifts, type ST1075FSA, are used to simplify workshop operations on the site’s fleet of 180 vehicles.

EQUIPMENT

Each of the Stertil Koni ST1075FSA heavy duty columns provides a lifting capacity of 7.5 tonnes which means that, when used as a set of four, the combined capacity of 30 tonnes ensures complete safety when dealing with the largest and heaviest vehicles in the refrigerated fleet.

Importantly, each column incorporates Stertil Koni’s revolutionary ebright Smart Control System which allows workshop staff to operate the columns individually, in pairs or in any other configuration from any column in the set. Positioning of the columns is flexible, enabling them to be used in any configuration around a vehicle. The ST1075FSA provides a maximum lifting height of 1.85 metres which is reached in just 75 seconds thereby making it one of the fastest commercial vehicle lifts available.

Incorporating full-colour touch screen consoles, the ebright Smart Control System has been designed and developed to simplify operation by providing maximum visual information about every lifting operation - all at the fingertips of the workshop engineers. For added safety and performance, the ebright Smart Control System also shows how many columns in the set are being used.

The columns incorporate Stertil’s maintenance-free, synthetic runner wheel system, which is self-lubricating, and the system is covered by a lifetime guarantee. An integral advanced hydraulic lifting system incorporates a microprocessor-controlled synchronisation feature to ensure safe, smooth and precise movement at all times.

Safety is further enhanced by an independent mechanical locking system, incorporated into each column, which allows engineers to securely lock the lift to prevent a vehicle from being inadvertently lowered.

At Bicester, Petit Forestier relies on the Stertil Koni mobile column lifts to support workshop activities throughout a daily 12 hour shift, six days a week. In a typical week, around 30 vehicles pass through the workshop where the lifts’ versatility helps to ensure safe and efficient operations.

WEBSITE LINK: www.petitforestier.com