Chesterfield-based hydraulic-lifting engineer Penny Hydraulics has developed Grid Lift, an innovative solution for lifting gully and drain covers.
Penny Hydraulics’ design is based on two hydraulic rams, one mounted horizontally to extend and retract the lifter and one mounted vertically to lift and lower the gully lid.
The unit is mounted laterally on the tanker’s chassis and can pivot through a small arc that allows the cover to be moved aside for easy access and cleaning of the gully.
One of the main challenges was to work out how the new device would pick up the gully cover.
The solution was to design a small frame that locks into place on the end of the vertical arm, before attaching to the gully cover by twist clips that can accommodate castings with different profiles.
Atkins, the network service provider for Somerset County Council, with responsibility for emptying the county’s 132,000 gullies, has now placed an order to equip its entire fleet of six gully tankers with the new device.
Each vehicle and its two-person crew inspects and clears around 26,000 gullies a year, a daily average of 85.
At each gully the cover has to be lifted off to provide access for cleaning and then replaced before the vehicle moves on.
Previously the covers, which can weigh up to 100kg, had to be lifted by hand using basic tools and levers.
The application highlighted is commonplace and can involve crews lifting large numbers of covers in a working shift. We have provided an alternative solution to the same requirement. It is in use with a national infrastructure services provider and a City Council, fulfilling the requirements to lift gullies and gratings, plus the capability to lift both metallic and non-metallic drain covers. The product, the Manhole Buddy, has been used by both organisations as a truck-mounted solution (on existing lifting arms) but provides the added flexibility of being usable on it’s own portable folding trolley. In particular, this allows covers to be removed in circumstances where the truck can not come alongside e.g verges and footpaths.