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After a 13-year absence, Heil Trailer International Co is once again building stainless steel tank trailers. Heil officials made the announcement on March 27 during the 2014 Mid-America Trucking Show in Louisville, Kentucky.
“We decided it was time to get back into stainless steel, because we want be able to provide our customers with a full range of products,” said Randall Swift, Heil president and chief executive officer. “We want to be more than just the largest aluminum tank builder.”
The stainless steel trailers are being built at Heil’s maquiladora factory in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, which is opposite El Paso, Texas. The plant features state-of-the-art technology including custom-developed, ultra-high-definition laser cutting for a tighter barrel fit-up and size-optimized, laser-welded barrel joints that ensure little to no grinding or post-processing after fit-up, which creates ultra-clean interiors and maximizes durability, regardless of the product.
The DOT407 trailer unveiled at MATS has a 5,000-gallon cargo tank fabricated from 316L stainless steel. Maximum allowable working pressure is 25 psig. A proprietary heat panel design on the new products outperforms current dimple panel designs and channel heat designs.
The undercarriage included a Huckbolted subframe of lean duplex for lighter weight and a Hendrickson Intraax air suspension system.
In the near future, the new stainless steel technology will offer up to 3-A sanitary compliance, the highest of sanitary standards for critical food grade and other material requirements.
Heil Trailer also introduced larger capacities to its dry bulk portfolio, allowing customers more options when it comes to the type of commodities they transport. The ultra-cleanable 1611 trailer, a unique dry bulk trailer, was introduced for the foodgrade industry. ♦
