THE DEFINITIVE TRUCKING SITE

September 2008

The coalfields of the Mpumalanga Highveld are hungry for tippers and here, McCarthy-Kunene Commercial Vehicles dealer principal, Cooban Moodley, hands over a new fleet of Mercedes-Benz Actros 6x4s equipped with Afrit twin-bin interlink side-tippers to The Right Mix’s operations director, Shaun Sajiawan. The rigs are capable of carrying a legal 34-tons, thanks to the lightweight components and robust Domex steel.

While some trailer builders stick to the tried and trusted techniques that made them successful in the first place, other companies thrive on innovation and constantly push the parameters as far as design and production techniques are concerned. It’s all about giving customers what they need, Afrit’s sales and marketing director, Leon van de Wetering tells Paul Collings. 

Keeping up with market demand is all about building production capacity and in the world of trailer fabrication, this means two things; better skills and better machines. 

“Afrit has focused on increasing its production over the past four years to keep pace with a growing demand in the market and most of our management capacity goes into ensuring that we have the flexibility and the capacity to satisfy these demands, while always maintaining quality and keeping our promises to clients,” says Van de Wetering. 

It’s no surprise that Afrit is pumping out more side tippers than anything else these days. “The growth in the mining sector, along with the energy crisis, has helped us notch up record production figures,” says van de Wetering. “We produced 462 units in July this year and 55% consisted of side tippers. The remaining units were 30% flatdecks and sliding curtains and 15% were more specialised applications such as low beds, end tippers and car carriers.” 

Sharper tech

In the quest to increase production volumes, there is always the risk that quality will be compromised, especially if personnel are put under pressure. Afrit has managed to elevate its product quality by implementing the best trailer fabrication technologies in the world. 

“Apart from our desire to increase capacity, it is also essential that changes to parts resulting from product improvements can be implemented immediately,” explains van de Wetering. “To be able to guarantee this, the decision was taken in 2004 to replace the punching and plasma cutting machines with a laser cutting system. We now have four laser cutters and are able to produce considerably narrower tolerances than before, which gives us greater confidence in the physical characteristics of the components which are used as assembly jigs in the trailers.” 

All four laser systems run around the clock from Monday to Friday. The same applies to the four press brakes, which were installed between 2005 and 2007. 

With labour stability a constant thorn in the side of South African industrialists, the move to robotic  assembly lines is inevitable. “We have a staff compliment of 960 people and while they’re mostly a satisfied work force, we do have our issues. We recently had two strikes in a single month,” exclaims Van de Wetering. “Naturally, this plays havoc with our production schedules and as a result, we’ve installed two big robot welders to handle our large sub-assembly work.” 

Apart from being more consistent in their time and attendance, the robots also deliver a far higher standard of weld overall. “A human can weld 30 parts a day, often with flaws, while a robot can weld 200 parts a day, perfectly,” says Van de Wetering.

The big debate

If anyone is interested in seeing where the payload envelope is being pushed hardest, they need look no further than the side-tip market, says van de Wetering. 

“The tipper industry is so competitive right now, with superslim margins, that everyone is pushing for that extra few hundred kilos of payload. Afrit has always sought to lower trailer tare mass but never at the expense of quality. We use imported Domex steel which is light in weight but very robust and ideal for the sidetipper market. We also insist on using the best components, be they axles and suspension units or brakes, rims and tyres.” 

While the coal tipper frenzy continues, Afrit does have other exciting new products rolling off its lines. 

“We’re about to launch our first reefer made from composite material that will be lighter and insulate better than traditional materials. We’re also proud of our first foray into the carcarrier market with a unique design of which 20 units have already been sold,” Van de Wetering concludes.