Support our Troops

Welcome to the latest Aebi Schmidt Newspage

This Winter, Salt Spreader Drivers will be out making our roads safer in the cold and the dark, and we are pleased to provide them with the highest quality snowploughs and spreaders to do the job.

But no matter how tough we in the UK are finding it, there are others who are a long way from home in day-to day dangerous situations. We are pleased to help promote the work of Help for Heroes - the charity that supports armed forces personnel injured in current conflicts.

And Alison Conroy, one of the Area Sales Managers at Aebi Schmidt, is putting her stamina and strength on the line for the charity with a 100- kilometre walk across the Sahara Desert, if she can raise the minimum £2,400. To help Alison log onto www.bmycharity.com/alisaharatrek

Schmidt's dry salt spreader

Councils' bid to save money on winter roads

Road safety is paramount  - but at what cost?

Councils throughout the UK have been hit by a double whammy this year: demands to save money; and, as a result of last winter's 'white-outs', the need to keep roads open for traffic.

And overriding all the cost implications is the need to maintain standards of road safety. In fact, as Durham Council has acknowledged, improving safety on roads and pavements has a direct and positive impact on medical costs - including a reduction in the number of people injured in road accidents and falling on ice-covered pavements.

But the core factor for treating roads in winter is that accurate spreading of salt and other materials saves on usage - and reduces the possibility of another run on salt suppliers' stock and production output.

The key to treating roads lies not so much in the material being used, whether that is dry salt, salt covered in molasses to make it sticky, pre-wet salt or brine, but the accuracy in which it is delivered to the road surface. And at times of tightened budgets, treating roads effectively is of much greater importance than simply throwing expensive rock salt onto the surface, including gutters, in a haphazard and wasteful way.

The move to reduce salt particle size in the UK continues. Some years ago it was common for large lumps - often over 10mm in size - to be spread on roads. Now the standard is 6mm amd lower, and that almost immediately means reduced cost for the salt buyer because, as tests have proved over recent years, good salt spreaders will do more with less material.

Large particles take a much longer time to dissolve enough to provide the de-icer performance. Their size and the high speed at which they leave the spinner means they can damage car paint and chip windscreens, and their ' mass' means they are very difficult to spread accurately. In practice many of these particles bounce off the road on impact, and serve no useful purpose, other than to treat roadside verges, trees, pavements or, indeed, adjacent shopping precincts!.

Large salt particles are seldom 'de-dusted' and our own analysis has proved that up to 25% is comprised of fines and dust - hence the large cloud behind the spreading vehicle that is simply waste.

The £1 million that Durham Primary Care Trust has invested in treating roads and pavements in the county will undoubtedly mean that there will be fewer accidents and that will mean reduced costs for the Trust in hospital operations. And the continuing trend to improve spreading equipment, technology and better use of salt will have the same effect elsewhere. Let us hope it is a safe, happy and accident-free winter for all.