Photo: Glenneis Kriel
The company also launched three new market solutions: first was an autonomous dual-operational side loader for long hauls, the Combi AGT. This forklift uses the latest in smart technology to safely and efficiently carry loads of up to 5t in guided aisles and in free roaming. It also has a manual feature, allowing it to be used during load-shedding or when the internet is down.
Martin McVicar, co-founder and CEO of Combilift, said that “improving efficiencies and safety should be a higher priority for warehouses before they go the autonomous vehicle route”.
The second solution was the Combi-LC load carrier, which was specifically designed to meet the growing demand of wind turbine manufacturers to handle larger wind turbine components, including towers and blades.
The load carrier consists of two fully customisable remote-control units, with low-level chassis beds that can work in tandem master and slave operation, to carry wind turbine blades and towers of up to 115m and weighting around 70t, through production stages and on to storage locations as far apart as 5km.
Josh Moffett, heavy equipment manager at Combilift, said that they hoped the Combi-LC would act as a gateway to further progress within their venture into the wind energy sector, and to generate over €50 million (about R1 billion) in revenue a year by 2026.
Along with this, the company released telematic software called Combi-Connect. The software provides real-time data, such as location tracking, usage analytics and maintenance alerts, to help businesses improve and enhance the efficiencies, productivity and safety of single and fleets of forklifts.
“With Combi-Connect, small and effective changes can bring big results, big savings and a more effective fleet management,” explained Combilift engineer Antonio Patacho.
In the past year, Combilift introduced two other solutions: the Combi CB 70E, which is described as the most compact 7t counterbalance truck available on the market with multidirectional ability, and the Combi Cube. The Combi Cube looks like an ordinary forklift, but operates like a hovercraft thanks to its ability to switch directions without having to stop to change weight positioning.
The company also offers free warehouse planning consultancy services to help customers unlock and visualise the full potential of their warehouses. Their precision lifting technology, in combination with multidirectional operation, enables optimal exploitation of vertical and horizontal space, and has allowed many of their consumers to increase their space within their existing footprint by 30% and more.
