When it came to selecting new lifting equipment at the Jaguar Engineering Centre in Coventry, previous experience with PORTA-GANTRY from Reid Lifting led Jaguar to specify further REID equipment.

The structural rig test at Jaguar’s Engineering Centre is responsible for carrying out general chassis durability testing. Its four poster road simulator, which tests vehicles up to the equivalent of 155,000 miles on different road surfaces, has actuators sunk into the ground. The lightweight aluminium PORTA-GANTRY was recommended by Safeway Lifting of Nuneaton and has ease of assembly and compact design. It is used by Jaguar for lifting the actuators from the bed and the system has been found to be easy to adjust to fit different sizes and situations.

For a second test rig, mounted on a bedplate, the cars to be tested have to be raised 3 feet into the air, for which a spreader beam was needed to support the car. Jaguar required a lightweight single beam system with a 2000Kg capacity to support a car’s weight. The company knew of Reid Lifting when it took delivery of PORTA-GANTRY and Reid was able to offer its PORTA-BEAM, which is a third of the weight of the steel equivalent.

Like PORTA-GANTRY, PORTA-BEAM is lightweight and easily assembled by two people and can be dismantled for remote storage.