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STS Attends PPMA 2024

STS Attends PPMA 2024

Posted 24/09/2024

Last week we made our way up to Birmingham NEC for the annual PPMA show. This is the largest production line exhibition in the UK and showcases the very latest in processing and packaging machinery. So, naturally, it’s the perfect place to demo our lifting and handling equipment. The week certainly didn’t disappoint.

The PPMA show, hosted by Automate UK, has been running for an impressive forty years. It prides itself on remaining relevant to the thousands of people who attend the event every year and boasts some incredibly high-profile visitors including Kellogs and PepsiCo. The focus of the show is to work not just harder but smarter and the range of exhibitors focus on showing guests just how this can be achieved. We demonstrated a number of products that allow manufacturers to do just that.

Every year the products on show get better and better and the advancement of technology has only served to accelerate this. The variety of exhibitors and products are so broad, we usually find ways to improve our own internal operations and head back to the factory bursting with new ideas.

Some things remain the same though. Where there are different types of drums and barrels, there is usually a manual handling problem to be solved. And, while our products have evolved and improved over time, our designs continue to be a simple, efficient and cost-effective way to help businesses transport drums and barrels safely. Here are some of the products we exhibited.

Electric End-Over-End Drum Mixer

This is an end-over-end drum mixer. When compared to a horizontal roller, it provides a faster method of mixing. It’s suitable for plastic, steel and fibreboard up to a maximum weight of 300kg.

Good for homogenising contents that have been left standing, this product is particularly useful for the chemical, plastic and paint industries.

This product features an electric control system with automatic stop and it’s fully compliant with the Machinery Directive. It is also available with an adapter for smaller drums if needed, talk to our team to find out more.

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Electric Drum Tipper with Power Rotation

Self-contained and mobile, this drum rotator is one of our most popular products and is suitable for a range of industries where barrel lifting and tipping is required.

It has a fully compliant lift circuit which is installed by our own qualified engineers and is fully applicable to regulatory standards. It also has an automatic smart battery charger and on-board maintenance-free batteries.

Features such as our universal drum band and rim clamp securing system mean that it is suitable for several different types of barrels or drums.

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Side-Shift Drum Lifter

This is the most versatile of all our drum lifters and indeed on the market - so it’s great to be able to show it off. It’s ideal for where products are stored in tighter spaces and, because you can easily adjust the catch on this model to securely connect to different containers, it’s suitable for barrels of varying sizes.

This product is also available as an ATEX Side-Shift Drum Lifter, suitable for flammable areas. You can find out more about this on our product page or contact our team who will talk you through our full ATEX product range.

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Stainless-Steel Counterbalance Drum Lifter

The stainless steel finish of this product makes it suitable for pharmaceutical and food processing environments. We supply lifting capacities of 250kg or 350kg depending on your requirements. It features a versatile rack which allows it to cater for drums of different heights. Our specialist team will be able to discuss options for lifting onto taller platforms if you have a bespoke barrel lifting requirement.

We overload test our drum lifters to 150% of load capacity to give our customers peace of mind when it comes to safe working load. As with many of our products, we also manufacture an ATEX-compliant version of this drum lifter.

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Universal Drum Trolley

Our flagship product, the Universal Drum Trolley is an ergonomically designed model that really has stood the test of time. It’s the most durable drum-lifting trolley on the market.

Manufactured to this day at our UK factory, it easily lifts barrels up to 350kg. The adjustable drum catch makes it ideal for steel, plastic and fibreboard drums from 50 to 220 litre. It is also constructed from stainless steel making it ideal for harsh manufacturing environments. They’re so robust that many of our original designs dating back to 1999 have never required replacement parts.

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All of our products are manufactured in the UK so we have full control over processes from receipt of order to delivery. Our team is on hand to answer any questions you have about manual lifting equipment. If you have a handling problem that needs solving, why not get in touch to see how we can help?