The first customers running the latest version of Superior Pak’s Raptor Side Loader are loving the efficiency of the new design – especially for green waste collections.
Developed in consultation with Veolia, the first of the new trucks took to the road in Sydney’s northern outskirts in late 2017 with impressive results.
Veolia driver and Manager of the fleet, Michael Looke, told Inside Waste magazine that the volume of green waste on runs in his local council area had historically been a problem.
“The challenge with the contract that I run in Sydney’s northern outskirts is that we pick up 350-litre bins whereas in most places, they are 240L bins. That means we’ve got quite a substantial volume of green waste that we need to fit into the hopper in one hit and this needs to be processed and pushed through, which had historically been difficult,” Looke explained to Inside Waste’s Jacqueline Ong.
Innovative Pendulum Blade
To address this challenge, at Superior Pak we not only looked at the hopper capacity, but also the mechanical parts and their ability to clear and pack waste more efficiently.
The key element of the resulting design is a purpose-built pendulum blade that makes for super-efficient clearing of green waste from the hopper and compacting in the body.
Features of the pendulum blade include:
- A larger swing radius which in turn allows a lot more waste to fall in front of the blade before it is packed into the body. Given that green waste can occupy a relatively large amount of volume, this makes the operation much more efficient.
- The blade passes further into the body (150mm more than standard) for more efficient breaking of woody material and branches.
- The shape of the blade distributes waste towards the sides of the body allowing for maximum payload and hopper clearance.
- The top of the body has been fitted with swinging ‘shark teeth’ to catch and prevent flexible waste from bouncing back.
A packer cycle-time of 10-13 seconds coupled with a 12.55% larger hopper than previous, also means more bin-lifts per minute. There is no doubt this is a fast machine.
Not Just For Green Waste
While the new Raptor Side-Loader represents an advance in efficient green waste collection, it’s not a one-trick pony. It also handles general waste and recycling with efficiency and offers excellent payload capacity improving their operations.
Another bonus is that the vehicle is dimensionally compact and manoeuvrable in spaces, such as suburban cul-de-sacs.
For more information on how the new Raptor Side-Loader will improve your operation, contact your Superior Pak representative today.