GSF Slides, the leading UK drawer slide company that recently launched its product range in the USA at the FDIC 2008 show in Indianapolis, announces today that the mainstay of its slide range, its 20.0007 slide, is 4 times stronger than the standard type of heavy duty 500 lb class slide typically being specified currently onto many US fire truck drawer trays.
GSF (www.gsfslides.com & www.gsftilt.com) recently completed a series of life cycle and load-drop tests on a range of its own products, which tests were intended to simulate some of the standard conditions that slides mounted on fire apparatus have to contend with.
The result of the test was that GSF’s 20.0007 slide will operate comfortably with a 1,000 lb load, including if the 1,000lb load is dropped onto the drawer.
By contrast GSF’s equivalent of an industry standard 500lb cold-rolled drawer slide irretrievably broke when carrying its rated load of 500lb after only 27 cycles of a 5,000 cycle operational test. Disbelieving this result, GSF retested the slide at half the 500lb rating – with only a 250 lb load; this time the slide failed after 576 cycles. Commenting, GSF’s export director, Alec Don, said:
“If our 20.0007 carries 1000 lbs, and our so called industry standard 500lb slide can not in fact even reliably carry 250lbs when subjected to typical fire truck conditions, I think we are entitled to say that our 20.0007 is at least 4 times as strong. Our cold-rolled slide, which we call our container slide, is superb for static situations such as electronic racks, furniture, or storage applications, but on an emergency or a defence vehicle something much more robust is needed.
Our 1,000lb 20.0007 slide is fabricated from cold-drawn steel bar, of itself much stronger against shock and vibration, but it is not just a question of the steel – it’s also a question of the strength of the end stops and the cage and the use of a reinforcing sets of minor-axis bearings, which altogether makes this the slide of choice for emergency vehicles throughout the world.
For fire trucks “cheap” is dangerous”
About GSF
GSF is the UK’s leading supplier of telescopic ball bearing slides and slide and tilt (“tip-down”) systems. Founded in 1988 and based in the middle of the UK near Oswestry in Shropshire, the Company offers the single largest range of high performance drawer slides available in the market, having recently (November 2007) added the Ballrace and Telerace range of ultra-high precision telescopic slide products to its portfolio. GSF products are used extensively in the fire, defence, train, aero and marine industries to name a few. Over 5,000,000 slides from the core product range have been sold worldwide.
In June 2008 the Company completed the launch of its new website which is designed to provide the most comprehensive and authoritative product listing and guide to drawer slide availability and selection available on the web (www.gsfslides.com).
GSF Slides
tel: +44 1691 770303
fax: +44 1691 776900
email: info@gsfslides.com
www.gsfslides.com
