A new vehicle wash down unit has been introduced at Corus' Teeside plant, which not only has the capability to clean vehicles and trailers up to 54 tonnes, but is also fully compliant with ISO 14001 environmental standards. The vehicle wash down unit is located at Corus' Road Vehicle and Mobile Plant workshop at Teesside. The introduction of the new facility will offer a first class cleaning system for all Corus vehicles, with the potential to expand these services into external markets, with a number of local organisations already showing interest.

The installation is sited on a large flood lit concrete bay, measuring 30m x 6m that consists of three, 1.7m hydraulic rams, which can be configured to lift vehicles from small cars to 80ft lorries and trailers.

Corus' own fleet of vehicles at Teeside comprises around 150 vehicles: forklift trucks, tractor and trailor units, light commercial vans, lorries and four-by-fours, so maintenance of these vehicles is critical.

The wash down facility is fully compliant with all applicable environmental standards and has ISO 14001 accreditation.

The process collects the dirt removed from the vehicles and pumps it through a separation system, leaving the water clean rather than polluting the ground like most wash down facilities.

Phil Cheeseman, the unit's manager comments: 'As well as providing our own fleet with first class wash down and pre-MOT inspection facilities, we are also anticipating a significant demand for this service from other Corus business units, as well as local haulage and owners of heavy goods vehicles in the region, as this is currently the only wash down facility of its type in the North East of England'.

The investment is part of a larger business plan for the Garage and Mobile Plant workshop to become a pre-MOT centre, which would provide a variety of tests and services available to Corus vehicles and external customers.

State of the art brake testing equipment has also just been introduced to the workshop and further additions are planned.

Cheeseman continues: 'The new unit is particularly useful for cleaning vehicles that require a pre-MOT wash down'.

'Before the wash down unit was introduced, we were using a mobile steam cleaning unit to clean the vehicles, but this only washes at ground level, not underneath the vehicles, and so some vehicles can fail the MOT if they are not clean underneath'.

'Originally, we considered introducing a facility with a large ramp and excavated pit, with iron and steel works underneath, but after talking with a local garage services company and a hydraulic ram supplier [Fuchs], we decided to construct the hydraulic ram version instead,' he adds.

The wash down unit is tested on a weekly basis and so far, says Cheeseman, less than 0.01% of the waste is contaminant.

The total investment in the new facility was in the region of GBP200,000 but the facility is expected to pay for itself within the next few years.