Efficient and Economical Recycling
Hybrid Forklift RX 70 being used at Van Gansewinkel
STILL being used at Van Gansewinkel
Challenge: Energy savings without a loss of power or performance.
Solution: The STILL RX 70-35 Hybrid. Since Van Ganswinkel began using the STILL RX 70-35 Hybrid, the company has reduced fuel consumption by 1,500 litres per year.
Product: Electric Forklift RX 70 Hybrid
Recycling specialist Van Gansewinkel tested the STILL RX 70 Hybrid for a month and precisely recorded their operational times and fuel usage. The results speak for themselves.
Just like at so many other companies, forklifts are an essential part of the workforce at Van Gansewinkel in Geldrop (Netherlands). They handle the loading and unloading of trucks as well as waste disposal and transport following the recycling process. "Barrels, cartons, packaging, boxes, palettes... we get almost everything here", says Eric Sloots, manager of the central chemical depot Geldrop. "most of what we see is chemical and industrial waste. Our location has specialized in the handling of these materials. Our forklifts are driven about an average of 2,000 hours annually."
Van Gansewinkel recently concluded a framework agreement with three fixed vendors: Motrac, Toyota Material Handling Nederland and STILL Nederland. In order to determine whether the new STILL RX 70 Hybrid was worthy of the reputation that it has developed within the industry, Van Gansewinkel decided to test the hybrid forklift with super caps for one month. "We asked all of our drivers to carry out their work as usual but to use the STILL lift for this period." We recorded the hours on the vehicles at the beginning and end of the test period. Whatsmore, we knew exactly how much fuel the trucks use because we also record the vehicle number and hours driven when the tank is filled at our own filling station. All of this lets us know exactly how much diesel each truck is using."
Greatly Reduced Diesel Consumption
High Power, High SavingsDuring the nearly three weeks that Van Gansewinkel tested the RX 70, the truck was driven for about 150 hours and used 175.2 litres of diesel. This means that 1.168 litres were needed per hour. When compared to the other trucks currently used by the company, this represents a savings of .76 litres per hour. Over the course of a year this would mean annual savings of up to 1,500 litres of diesel per machine.
"We were very surprised by the results", said Eric Sloots. "Even more so when you consider that the STILL RX 70 Hybrid weighs 3.5 tons, meaning that it has to move more weight than the 2.5 ton lifts that we normally use. Of course there is probably a newer, more efficient model of the Linde H 25 forklift that we currently employ but, taking into account the differences in capacity, this performance is really quite impressive."
The STILL RX 70-35 Hybrid is also available in a 3 ton version. It weighs about 330 kg less than the 3.5 ton machine which was tested at Van Ganswewinkel. Taking the manufacturer's fuel consumption information as a basis, they might even be able to save up to 1,700 litres per lift per year using the 3 ton model.
Environmentally Friendly and Effective
Driven by Braking EnergyThe efficiency of the STILL RX 70-35 Hybrid can be traced back to its hybrid drive technology. A Diesel engine drives a generator which, in turn, creates electrical energy with which the forklift is driven. The super caps, make it possible to quickly collect the energy recovered during the braking of the vehicle. It can be released just as quickly the next time that the vehicle accelerates. Thanks to this additional 8 kw of energy, the RX 70-35 Hybrid requires a much smaller engine which means that the total energy consumption falls dramatically.
Eric Sloots: "Saving fuel is a key topic within our company. The environmental friendliness of our trucks is very important to us. We will, of course, continue to concentrate on improving fuel savings for internal transportation as well. This test shows that new technologies are making this possible."
