Sunkid Moving Carpet with new application possibilities
Sunkid is the world leader in outdoor conveyor belts for winter sports. In particularly snowy winters, the Wonder Carpet is also convincing in unusual environments.
Due to the weight of the snow cover, hall roofs in particular are exposed to enormous roof loads. In order to ensure safety in the buildings, the snow masses must be cleared from the roof all too often. It is precisely for this purpose that the Sunkid Moving Carpet makes work easier and provides additional safety on the roof.
The need to clear the roof of masses of snow is nothing new for the Upper Austrian companyPPIPlasticProductsInnovation GmbH & Co KG. The production and storage hall 1 in Ebensee is 120 meters long and 120 meters wide, and the roof area is around 14,000 m2. This is roughly equivalent to three soccer fields. Due to the heavy snowfalls in recent weeks, a snow depth of around 60 centimeters formed on the roof - that's around 8,640 m3 of snow that had to be cleared from the roof for safety reasons. So far, 50 employees have spent around five days clearing the roof of the masses of snow. The personnel costs for snow removal amounted to around 50,000 euros each time.
More Safety and Economic Advantages with Moving Carpet
For this reason, managing director Ing. Heinz Schulze invested around 60,000 euros two years ago in a Sunkid conveyor belt, which was mounted on the roof. The conveyor belt has a length of 99 meters and a conveyor width of 60 cm. A 15 kW drive theoretically transports up to 500 m³ of snow per hour at a speed of 1 m/sec. The conveyor is made of a special lightweight construction with a weight of 50 kg per running meter. All parts are hot-dip galvanized and withstand the external conditions very well. The conveyor belt cuts the paths on the roof in half. As a result, the snow can be skimmed off the roof faster, which is very positive from the point of view of safety and economy. Shoveling snow is safer and more efficient for people on the roof, as at least half of the snow mass can be removed to the center of the roof instead of to the edge of the roof. The snow is always dropped from the roof at the same point with the help of the conveyor belt, which brings further logistical advantages especially for removal on the ground.
"The heavy snowfalls in recent weeks have given us the opportunity for a baptism of fire for the conveyor belt installed in 2007. The investment has already paid for itself almost completely after the first use," explains Ing. Heinz Schulze. "The hall roof was cleared of the snow masses by 35 employees in just 2 days and PPI was able to save a large part of the personnel costs compared to previous snow clearing operations.
Sunkid authorized signatory Mag. (FH) Emanuel Wohlfarter is convinced that the Moving Carpet is a worthwhile investment for many companies. "Especially industrial companies usually have a very large or several smaller production halls on which enormous amounts of snow lie. The roofs have to be cleared. The work can be accelerated and facilitated by our conveyor belts. The additional economic benefit is, of course, doubly gratifying." Wohlfarter believes that its conveyor belts for the roof make sense specifically in Vorarlberg, Tyrol, Salzburg, Upper Austria, Lower Austria, Carinthia and Styria due to their geographical location.
