Amrep's NEW PROTOTYPE Automated Side Loader
As the premier waste equipment manufacturing and repair business of the western U.S., Amrep leads the industry in design that adapts to the needs of its customers, just as it has since 1976. The company more recently recognized an opportunity for improvement to its Automated line--specifically in the workings of that product's mast and container lift system. Today I bring you the result of that effort: the newest of Amrep Inc's innovations in the market of automated side loaders.
You'll notice that the arm on this first unit, truck #310 in the fleet of Waste Resources Inc. of Gardena, is unlike the 'candy cane' design of before. First, the belt that loops over the top of the mast and attaches to the gripper assembly does not wrap around the bottom like it did before. A vertically-mounted hydraulic cylinder hidden behind the mast is attached to one end of this belt, or "the chain". That cylinder extends (pushing downward) to pull the gripper assembly upward...almost like the reeving system now prevalent on rolloff trucks used for lifting large industrial waste containers. Once the gripper assembly reaches the top, a different system powered by a new pair of cylinders will cause a hinged section of the mast (that is now holding the fully-raised gripper assembly) to pivot up. This pivoting motion is what actually tips the container into the hopper, spilling the waste inside where it belongs.
The process reverses when the driver is ready to lower the container and replace it at the curb: the pivoting section rotates back down, and the long cylinder behind the mast retracts, and the gripper assembly holding the container quickly returns down to where it started.
The second truck you'll see in the video is #309, working the mixed household waste route, a separate stream from the yard waste collected by the first truck. Although this second truck is just a year old, being a 2013 model, it features the less recent, 2nd generation arm--the "candy cane"--which is powered by a hydraulic motor and a fully-looped belt to raise and lower the gripper assembly. This design will likely see replacement by the 3rd generation arm (as on WR's truck #310) on all newly-manufactured Automated bodies, by the end of 2014.