11/23/10

Isuzu Double In FreshBins World-First


After falling in love with Warrnambool during a family holiday, Paul Sewell decided to quit his New South Wales job and move to the Western Victorian coastal city and look at the work prospects available to him.

Paul soon discovered an untapped niche and began a bin cleaning company. Not content with traditional bin cleaning methods, several years of research has led Paul to develop an industry-first cleaning and sterilising system for domestic and commercial rubbish bins offering many benefits over the older technology.

While his FreshBins company is travelling very well serving predominantly local customers, and some areas of metropolitan Melbourne, it’s his new $4 million prototype bin cleaning Isuzu truck that has him most excited.

"After researching the industry I found that nobody in Warrnambool was cleaning bins. Initially I developed a reloading truck, an Isuzu NPR 200. But after a lot of stopping and starting to exit the truck, manually load the bins, wash them and pull them back out, I investigated an easier way," Paul said.

Many hundreds of hours of research and development later, FreshBins took delivery of an NQR 450 Premium, converting it into the first robotic bin cleaning truck in the world. The state-of-the-art unit uses three dimensional vision to aid the robotic arm to pick up a bin, which is then automatically washed before being returned to the ground. The truck performs this task while the driver remains seated.

"It doesn’t matter how the bin is positioned, or if it is lying on the ground. The arm can locate a rubbish bin at 68 possible positions, while a second sensor detects any movement around the bin such as animals or children," Paul said.

Another benefit of the FreshBins system is the huge water saving during the cleaning process – cleaning a single domestic size bin can require up to 100 litres of water.

"This contaminated water is often washed into storm water systems, wasting water and harming the environment," Paul said.

Using ozone as a steriliser, FreshBins recycles water and amazingly uses just 63 mL to clean each bin, with a secondary benefit being the removal of contaminated water and waste from the waterways.

Paul said an Isuzu truck was used for the bin cleaning prototype as it was the most compatible with the FreshBins system.

"Isuzu’s reliability is fantastic and the customer service is second to none. We are very proud and excited to be using the Isuzu product.

"Our cleaning unit is also powered by a 4JJ-1 Isuzu industrial engine which is absolutely brilliant. The engine works very well with our system. It drives the high pressure pump and all of the electrics which is great," Paul said.

Apart from Isuzu’s reliability, FreshBins took to the brand for environmental reasons.

"Isuzu is by far the market leader in low emission trucks. One of FreshBins’ corporate policies states that we are concerned about the environment, so Isuzu trucks fit the criteria well. In the long term our fleet will be completely fuelled by Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), of which Isuzu has several models" Paul said.

"The new NQR 450 is absolutely brilliant. The whole cab is great – the layout, instruments and seats are absolutely fantastic. I cannot fault one single thing with it. It’s brilliant to drive and the view from the cab is unbelievable.

"We find that with the load on the back of the NQR 450, which is 7.5 tonne, it still has plenty of power. Braking is fantastic and acceleration is good. We largely do metropolitan driving. Occasionally we drive the NQR 450 on the highway which it also handles extremely well.

"I purchase my trucks at Ballarat Isuzu, where they are under a Platinum Service Agreement. Rather than hiring different contractors to service bits and pieces, our Isuzu dealer services all components of the truck, so it’s a one-stop-shop for us – it’s a lot more convenient," Paul said.

Paul believes there is great potential for the new FreshBins cleaning system both at a corporate and government level.

"Melbourne City Council has placed a law stating that bins must be cleaned on a regular basis. If a rubbish bin appears dirty an instant $1,000 fine will be given," Paul said.

"During times of drought and water restrictions there is hesitance to have bins cleaned, especially by traditional means – the new FreshBins system eliminates this problem."

See more from Isuzu Australia at http://www.isuzu.com.au/

1 comment:

digger derrick trucks said...

It is good to try and start a niche business...I think Paul has done an amazing job by doing a new way of things in the cleaning trucks market.The manual inputs sound amazing.