SubscribeThe development of the containerisation concept has contributed more to the flow of goods and the growth of the global economy over recent decades than arguably any other factor. Containers are now the worldwide industry standard for the transfer of the majority of world's produce, products and consumables.
Early on in the development of the container concept the inherent flexibility of this mode caught the eye of keen military logistical minds around the world, but it took the development of the Self Loading Trailer (SLT) concept to fully realise the benefits of containerisation and the vision of these planners.
Developed to bridge the gap between port or rail head and final destination, the SLT has accelerated the acceptance of the containerisation concept by giving greater flexibility on where and when a container can be delivered.
Able to operate independently from the conventional infrastructure needed to handle a container, such as large forklifts, concrete pads, gantries, cranes and straddle carriers, the SLT can pick up, transport and offload a container anywhere a vehicle can access, without external help.
The SLT is a revolutionary concept, which allows for great flexibility in delivery, flexibility in transportation, and the cost-effective utilisation of plant and infrastructure.
An SLT has a set of independently operating crane lifting arms, and retractable stabilising legs that can lift containers from the ground, a rail wagon or another truck or trailer onto itself, and transport the container anywhere where a truck can access.
The ability to self-load and unload a container eliminates the need for forklifts and other heavy equipment to be available at both ends of the containers route.
Independently, and in differing hemispheres, two companies worked on developing and evolving the SLT concept to the point where the complex integration of electronics, hydraulics and advanced engineering resulted in machines that can operate under any climatic conditions. Australasian based Steelbro Ltd, and German based Klaus Transportsysteme GmbH & Co. KG., created the blueprint, and refined the product to its present day incarnation.
The Steelbro SLT range offers the maximum highway payload capability, and the Klaus range offers the maximum on site handling capability and Klaus is the world’s leading military supplier of SLT hardware. Steelbro and Klaus SLT’s can be found working in over 100 countries worldwide.
The synergies of combining the resources of Steelbro, the largest supplier to the commercial market and Klaus, the largest supplier to the military motivated Steelbro to acquire the SLT side of the Klaus business in late 2001. SLT’s are commonly known as Sideloaders or Sidelifters as they pull up along side a container and lift it side-on.
Both companies have long engineering histories, Steelbro was created in 1878 and Klaus was formed in 1907 and each company grew to become one of the largest engineering companies in their respective country of origin.
Klaus has been supplying SLT machines to military institutions around the world for nearly two decades and their machines have become an instrumental part of the logistical support handling capabilities of many NATO forces including the US Air Force, the US Army, the UK Army and the Czechoslovakian Army amongst others.
Klaus has spent decades working closely with the Military to tailor their SLT range to Military requirements and their products have earned an enviable reputation for durability and ease of operation.
Such is the durability of the Klaus range, the US Air Force recently elected to overhaul their 15 year old machines, rather than replace, as they exhibited minimal wear and were deemed to be in excellent operational order, quite an achievement after one and a half decades of Military use!
Switched on Military planners are now recognising that there is a raft of container handling abilities now open to them as the significance and implications of containerised transport takes hold. SLT’s are becoming an increasingly essential and indispensable part of numerous task forces around the world.
Previously, containers could only be handled with large forklifts, which need prepared surfaces such as asphalt, or concrete to work on, and the distribution and conveyance of these expensive machines was a logistical problem in itself. Not only were they hard to transport, but forklifts and specialised container lifters have a limited capability on unformed surfaces, and a very limited operational range when a container needs to be transported for even a modest distance.
The ability to uplift and transport a container, and then deposit it wherever needed have enabled military planners to capitalise on the advantages of containerisation and containers have been converted to an ever-expanding range of uses. These include portable buildings such as command centres, medical wards, contamination-decom wards, cookhouses, cool-tainers (refrigerated), barracks, offices and supply stores.
The SLT offers the ability to move equipment, munitions, supplies, command centres and other container-based requirements to forward areas where the SLT can operate in a wide variety of guises.
An SLT can load or unload containers direct from railwagons, transfer truck to rail and vice versa, and as well as hauling its own container, the SLT can load and unload whole convoys of containers without the need to relocate independent heavy lifting equipment.
In a fluid battlefield scenario, vital supplies can be moved into forward areas quickly and standard model SLT’s can handle the full spectrum of conventional container sizes up to 36 tonne in weight and 10’, 2 x 10’, 20’, 2 x 20’, 30’ and 40’ in length. Other models can handle 45’ containers and most models can stack containers two high, and all can load to rail and other truck/trailer units.
A variety of Sidelifter models have been developed to handle every scenario including variants that can load from both sides, and as truck mounted units, even though the SLT is primarily a semi-trailer based container handling system. Truckmount SLT’s have extended operational capabilities over the normal semi-trailer setup, especially so when mounted to an 8x8 All-Terrain vehicle or tracked machines, which can give an almost unlimited potential for container relocation.
In fluid battlefield conditions, SLT’s have been proven as a quick and flexible solution for bringing up equipment, munitions and supplies into forward areas and help enact quick deployment of materials and buildings when needed.
Some military usages include containers that have been rigged to carry motorcycles, small assault vehicles and quads, consolidating unwieldy equipment and the man power needed to transfer them into a single easily stored and conveyed container.
In some parts of the world, particularly in fire fighting services, containers are prepacked with equipment needed for certain situations, and are selected, loaded and delivered on demand by an SLT, often right into the teeth of the blaze. Once the nature of the fire is ascertained and transmitted to the fire-boss, he can select the appropriate pre-packed container and ensure the correct equipment for the job is delivered in one hit. Some fire-units run decom-containers specifically rigged out to decontaminate fire fighters after chemical or hazardous material conflagrations or contaminations.
Humanitarian relief projects have also benefited greatly from SLT technology when and wherever implemented. The safest way to move goods is by container which help to eliminate pilfering, spoilage and contamination and the container also has the advantage of being an easily guarded and secured storehouse, or prison, as recent events in Afghanistan have proved.
Usually, disaster strikes in areas of little or no infrastructure and usually existing infrastructure has been heavily compromised or destroyed during the calamity. Whole convoys of trucks carrying containers can be unloaded onsite by a single SLT, which also has the benefit of carrying it’s own container to the area, eliminating the need to have specialist equipment at each end of the convoy’s delivery cycle.
A container can be sitting on a SLT, driven onto an aircraft, airlifted to a destination and driven off without interruption to the delivery point, and be unloaded exactly where needed or directed, and then unload accompanying vehicles. No other container handling system comes close to having this magnitude of flexibility.
Both Steelbro and Klaus recognised several decades ago that containerisation was a world-wide imperative, but also that the concept would remain flawed unless there was a way to allow the container to reach everywhere, not just those places with an infrastructure and equipment in place capable of handling 36 tonne weights. Steelbro and Klaus could see the container handling system had to be self-sufficient, capable of handling all container sizes, manoeuvrable and easily operated.
A Sidelifter working in Australia may well be several thousand kilometres from any engineering facility should problems occur and the machine was developed with this in mind and engineered to be reliable. Over time, the Sidelifter’s durability became legendary.
The ability to drop a container in the middle of a desert or on top of a mountain pass opened up new and exciting possibilities for farmers, miners, exploration crews, not to mention the military. This durability was honed in other places around the globe such as South America, Africa and numerous Pacific Island nations as the full potential of the benefits of containerisation were grasped around the world.
A couple of decades later, in certain parts of the world, whole rail, port and factory complexes are designed around the capabilities of the Sideloader and the inherent flexibility the SLT concept exhibits.
Containers can be loaded at ground level eliminating the ramps and docking facilities needed for containers sitting on trailers, resulting in quicker safer loading cycles. The loading crew can then move onto the next container and not have to wait for the first to be pulled away. Trailers and tractors are freed for more productive work.
Klaus Sideloaders have an unparalleled safety system, which makes it the machine of choice for handling dangerous cargoes such as munitions, fragile items such as medical supplies and eliminates the possibility of accident to the operator. Klaus’s safety system has been acclaimed by many operators around the world, including the US Air Force and UK Army, which have extensive experience with the Sideloader and its capabilities.
Military planners around the world are now being taught to look inside the square, or rectangle as the case may be. The marriage of container and SLT is proving that nearly the whole gamut of complex Military operational needs can be packaged, and delivered, in a box.
And if that’s not every Military logistic expert’s dream come true, we don’t know what is!
