April 20 - ALE has designed and built a new self-propelled skid system, the SS800, with 800 tonne capacity skid shoes.
In total, the heavy lift and specialised transportation group, has built 48 of the 800-tonne skid shoes, 12 push/pull units with 83 tonne capacity and 190 five metre skid tracks.
ALE's fleet of skid shoes ranges in capacity from 150 tonnes to 1,200 tonnes, and the company says those with a capacity between 650 and 1,200 tonnes give its clients greater flexibility in their operations. "We believe skid systems have a great future," explained Ronald Hoefmans, technical director. "The loads are becoming so heavy, but are still compact and need compact transport systems with high capacity to move them."
The system also has a new generation control system with stroke and pressure control, as well as a variable skidding speed to reduce acceleration and deceleration during start up and stopping of the movement.
The system was designed in-house at ALE's research and development facility in Breda, the Netherlands, and will increase ALE's overall skidding capacity by 38,400 tonnes. These high capacity skid shoes are suited for site moves, load-outs and other heavy transport work globally. They have already been shipped to be utilised on their first projects.
