02.12.2011

42 metre spider for Shopping centre

London’s new Westfield Shopping Centre, in Stratford City on the Olympics site has purchased a new 42 metre wheeled Falcon FS420 spiderlift for cleaning and maintenance duties.

The new lift was supplied to Europe’s largest shopping mall by Urban Access, the UK partners of TCA Lift A/S (formally Skako Lift /Falck Schmidt). The company helped Westfield select and specify the machine, and then delivered and commissioned it. Urban worked closely with Keith John from 2 Cousins
Access, which provided the centre with a range of new Skyjack electric scissor lifts for the general lower level day to day cleaning and maintenance work.
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Commissioning Westfield's new Falcon FS420

Neil Wilkinson managing director of Urban Access said: “Our initial design brief from the Westfield group was to provide an innovative and ultra lightweight access system for use both internally and externally throughout the shopping centre for high level cleaning tasks, smoke detection equipment maintenance and testing, lighting maintenance and installation of decorations and marketing display banners.”

“In addition, the solution had to be capable of working around and over the top of complex internal obstructions such as balconies, verandas, stairways and escalators. The FS420’s double fly-jib- a feature on all of our Falcon models - combined with a working height of 42 metres, maximum outreach of 16 metres and fast operation, meant that it was ideally suited to the application, so this is what we proposed.”
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The centre has a large number of tricky working at height challenges

In addition to the standard FS420 model, many optional extras were selected in order to to tailor the lift to the specific work. These included: PTFE stabiliser pads/mats to further spread the loading on each outrigger foot and prevent damage to the high quality floor finish, non marking tyres, individual setting for each stabiliser leg, automatic outrigger set and levelling from the platform, all wheel drive for increased traction and torque on slopes, remote control drive facility, platform rotation, built in wind speed anemometer, 220 Volt and high pressure air/water outlets in the cage, proximity sensors mounted around the base of the platform to prevent accidental collisions with the many glass facades throughout the centre, three cylinder Lombardini diesel engine for improved external performance and a double battery pack for longer shift times on internal work.
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The Westfield shopping centre

The Westfield Stratford City has over 300 shops, a 14-screen cinema, 70 restaurants, three hotels, a bowling alley and a casino. The shopping centre will also provide the main access to the Olympic park.

The project is also part of the areas regeneration plan and is expected to create around 8,500 new jobs. It is said to be the first stage of the transformation of East London, which is due to continue long after the Olympics have come and gone.