Iplex Pipelines | Forward Bin Tipper and Nally Bins

Iplex Pipelines a factory in Palmerston North, manufactures and supplies high-quality plastic pipeline solutions across New Zealand for electrical, civil, plumbing and rural applications. They have various sustainability initiatives, including the 'Return to Gate' project, which focuses on recycling and reusing materials.

Some of the team were briefed on finding an efficient, cost-effective and standardised process for collecting and handling this recyclable material.

Some of the team at the Palmerston North site were tasked with finding a way to streamline the recycling of factory off-cuts, returning this waste material back into the production process.  There were many different ways waste material was handled or stored on site, (including manual handling of bins,) which was proving inefficient, unsafe and involving a duplication of resources. However, the process of recycling the waste material was only run once per week, so the project did not warrant large capital expenditure.

The Iplex team researched bin tipping attachments for forklifts and then reached out to Stratalign's lifting consultants to discuss what they were trying to achieve and if there were models available that would suit the tipping height and opening width of their recycling hopper. The solutions suggested were reviewed by the Health and Safety  and the Operations stakeholders at Iplex before any decisions were made.

Our Solution: Stratalign supplied a 'slip-on' hydraulic forward bin tipper so that existing forklift capacity on site could be utilised, no dedicated forklift needed for bin tipping. The tipping attachment could be fitted to any forklift in minutes and the waste from around the site collected and tipped into the recycling hopper and the then attachment removed so the forklift could resume standard duties. This whole process would be done by one person, safely, without dragging other team members away form their work to assist with manual handling.

Additionally, a set of uniform sized plastic mega bins were supplied so that the bin tipper did not have to be adjusted all the time for the many different sized bins that had turned up around the site over the years.

Outcome: The forward bin tipper attachment and standardised mega bins made the collection of off-cuts for recycling a safe, simple and straight forward task for one person, without involving substantial capital outlay.