Norwest Plant demonstrates Bobcat Attachment range on Blackpool South’s Blue Flag Beach
Wigan-based Norwest Plant, the Authorised Bobcat and Doosan dealer for North-West England and North Wales, has demonstrated a wide range of Bobcat attachments as part of a Tool Carrier customer event organised in collaboration with Doosan Bobcat EMEA on Blue Flag-rated South Beach in the very popular seaside resort of Blackpool in the north of England.
One of the attachments shown was the new Bobcat SC200 Sand Cleaner. Compatible with both the standard and high flow versions of the Bobcat T590, T650, T770 and T870 compact tracked loader (CTL) models, the Sand Cleaner adds to over 70 different attachment families available from Bobcat, opening up an array of new applications to the already wide portfolio that can be carried out by Bobcat Tool Carriers combined with Bobcat attachments.
Cleaning Sand for Hours
Before an audience of key personnel from Blackpool Council in charge of beach management and maintenance, together with several local contractors in construction and landscaping and equipment rental companies, the sand cleaner, mounted on a new Bobcat T590 compact tracked loader, worked for several hours on the beach, picking up litter, stones and seaweed and leaving a clean finish.
As tool carriers, Bobcat CTLs such as the T590 offer many advantages over wheeled machines, increasing productivity in all conditions with a lifting capacity approximately 25% more than equivalently sized wheeled machines. While wheeled machines may outperform tracked machines for sheer manoeuvrability on hard surfaces, the rubber tracked undercarriage on CTLs ensures improved traction on rough terrain; soft, sandy surfaces and in wet, muddy conditions, providing the owner of the machine with the opportunity to work the whole year round.
Low Ground Pressure
Approximately three times less than a wheeled machine, the low ground disturbance of tracked loaders allows them to work on delicate surfaces, such as established lawns or asphalt, minimising damage and reducing the need for tidying up after the job is complete. The increased ground contact area and the lower centre of gravity means compact tracked loaders are generally more stable than wheeled machines, especially when shuttling backwards and forwards. The much better traction of compact tracked loaders provides 15% more pushing force than an equivalently sized wheeled machine, allowing them to push heavier loads without getting stuck. The smoother ride over rough surfaces enhances operator comfort and helps keep loose materials in the bucket. The lighter ride over all terrains also helps to eliminate downtime from damaged tyres.
Jonathan Campbell, General Manager of Norwest Plant, said: “The event proved to be a resounding success for Norwest Plant with a lot of our customers taking time out of their busy schedules to attend. As well as the sand cleaner, we also presented laser grader, landscape rake, planer, sweeper, industrial grapple, farm grapple, dumping hopper, pallet fork, hydraulic clamp and breaker attachments from Bobcat and a range of other Bobcat tool carriers including the S70 skid-steer loader, E10 and E26 compact excavators and the T36120SL 12 m telehandler.
“Despite attachments being the order of the day, we managed to secure several machine orders which was particularly pleasing. The results garnered are a testament to the hard work that my team put in to making this event happen at such an iconic venue. We worked closely with the local authority and it’s safe to say we all had a brilliant day in the sunshine with a variety of machines made available for the public to safely demonstrate.
“We even had the Blackpool Beach police team try out the Bobcat E26 in a competition we ran; footage can be seen on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Such was the success of this event, we have already begun preliminary discussions with Blackpool Council on hosting an even larger scale event in 2018 – so keep your eyes peeled for that.”
Only Blue Flag Beach in North West
Today it is even more important than ever that Blackpool beach is kept in top condition as it has recently been labelled amongst some of the best in the world, with the stretch of the beach at Blackpool South named in the list of Blue Flag beaches for 2016, putting it on a par with world renowned sites in all four corners of the globe, including those on the Caribbean, Mediterranean Sea and Pacific coastlines.
Blackpool was the only beach in North West England to have the prestigious Blue Flag in 2016, where its local facilities as well as access, cleanliness and public safety were assessed to make sure the beach reached Blue Flag’s very high international standards. The accolade is a remarkable turnaround for Blackpool’s beaches, where heavy investment coupled with work with businesses, communities and public sector partners has contributed to making sure the town has a coastline to be proud of. At the same time, three other areas of beach in Blackpool have been granted Seaside Awards for the third successive year, giving the resort an entire coastline of award winning beaches.
Great Tool Carrier Event
Alastair Jones, Bobcat Tool Carrier Expert (UK, Ireland, Nordics and Baltics), said: “This was a great event, well organised by Norwest Plant, who were able to secure this iconic location in Blackpool. The Bobcat branding was excellent, with Norwest Plant bringing a Bobcat branded exhibition trailer unit to the event, flying two Bobcat flags from the top of the boom of the 12 m telehandler, with more Bobcat flags and banners demarcating our area on the beach, with a full array of brochures and merchandise available for visitors.
“We also had the opportunity to interact with the local community, with the public and passers-by stopping to watch the event during their walks on the promenade and asking us about the Bobcat equipment in action on the beach.”
With a working width of 1900 mm, a working depth of up to 200 mm and a bucket capacity of 350 l, the Bobcat Sand Cleaner is a high performance attachment which allows the loader operator to quickly sift sand/soil and collect debris as small as cigarette stubs. As well as cigarette stubs, the Sand Cleaner can also pick up other small debris such as bottle caps, broken glass, pieces of wood, cans, rocks, plastic bags, syringes and seaweed.
The Sand Cleaner is therefore ideal for use on public and private beaches; holiday resorts; playground maintenance; sports fields (including beach volleyball and beach soccer); horse racing tracks; farms and in the recycling/sorting industry.
Norwest Plant is part of the Construction Equipment Division of Northern Ireland-based Ballyvesey Holdings Ltd, a privately-owned, financially strong group with a wide range of trading subsidiaries. As the Authorised Bobcat and Doosan dealer for North-West England and North Wales, Norwest Plant covers Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside (including the Wirral), Cheshire, Anglesey, North Gwynedd, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham.
For more information about Bobcat and Bobcat products, visit the website www.bobcat.com
For more information about Doosan construction equipment, visit www.doosanequipment.eu
