Quality craftsmanship

ACT Bins explains the key qualities the company has applied to developing high strength and durable front and hooklifts, skips and marells. 

With more than 60 years’ combined experience in the recycling industry, ACT Bins boasts a proven track record of quality and strength that has seen it used worldwide for more than 10 years.

ACT Bins & Sheds, which stands for Australian Standard, Customer Centric and Total Quality Control, is part of ACT Industrial, an Australian steel fabrication company located in Kwinana, WA.

The company focuses on the manufacture of high quality and strength pre-fabricated steel sheds, factories, warehouses, workshops and other steel structures 500 square metres and above. With a dedicated team of engineers and welders, ACT Industrial integrates and tests the latest manufacturing systems to ensure high quality welding and workmanship for quality assurance. 

On an average day, Matthew Eaton, ACT Bins General Manager, explains the company’s 12,000-square-metre site in QLD could contain between 1200 to 1400 bins at any one time. 

“Because we keep so many bins onsite, the best thing we offer is for customers to come here and take a look. Every customer that comes through our gates always notices how strong our bins are. They are the heaviest duty bins you will see on the market,” Matthew says. 

“I’ve been with the company for almost five years and I have never had any bins fail or break.” 

ACT Bins offers 1.5, three and 4.5 cubic metre front lift bins manufactured using three millimetre cold rolled sheet steel. The company also uses industrial lids with proven durability on all its front lifts.

Matthew explains that the galvanised steel bins, 1.5-cubic-metre and three-cubic-metre front lifts have typically been used by private waste companies particularly in shopping centers and companies close to the ocean. “As they are rust proof, these bins will typically last two to three times longer,” he says.

A number of private waste management companies come to ACT Bins to provide them with a customised front lift bin design. 

Matthew says a cold rolled steel makes the material highly durable and results in a faster and more economical manufacturing process. With an engineering team based in WA, every bin goes through a rigorous design process to ensure it meets the customer’s specifications. 

The 1.5 and three-cubic-metre front lifts are stackable and tapered, reducing freight costs, and able to store three bins high for the three-cubic-metre front lift and four high for 1.5-cubic-metre bins. 

“Previously with many front lifts, you couldn’t stack them inside each other,” Matthew says.

“We had them tapered because we bring them all from overseas, but for transport costs it’s a no brainer. The more you can fit on one truck, the better it is for the customer.” 

He says that in the design of ACT’s hooklift bins, the pins are not passed through the channel at the front, but have two additional 22-millimetre steel plates welded in place along with two stiffeners added to each side of the hooklift pin inside the channel.  

ACT’s hooklift bins also contain five millimetre floors with 100-by-100 millimetre RHS running down both sides linking at the base. This then runs through to the opposite side giving superior strength to the sides and floor. 

Hinges within the hooklift bin have a 30-millimetre shaft and are heavy duty reducing any risk of failure. 

Depending on the bin size, door hinges comprise 30-millimetre steel shafts by two or three and the locking mechanism can have two or three by 12-millimetre steel plates. Both sides of the bin have folded edges along the floor and the welded join is 100 millimetres up the wall reducing dirt and water build-up (which causes rust along the join), providing additional strength where needed. 

ACT also offers skips and marells built from three and four-millimetre floors and walls respectively with three or four 90-by-50-millimetre channel reinforcing along the bottom for added strength. The skips and marells are heavily reinforced, with all seams fully welded and with 40-by 40-millimetre angles added to all joins. 

The top of the bins have 80-by-40-millimetre channels with extra bracing on the four corners for added strength. Lifting lugs comprise 40-millimetre pins that pass through the channel and have two-by-12-millimetre steel plates added inside the channel, then are welded internally and externally. 

“One of the best design strengths on our bins is the lifting lugs on our skips and marells are welded inside and outside the bins. Inside the channel are two 12-millimetre plates as well, so it’s pretty much guaranteed in your lifetime you will never snap those lugs off,” he says. 

“I’ve been with the company for five years and the other staff I’ve spoken to have never had a customer report that they’ve snapped one off – not even bent.” 

Matthew says that skip and marrel joins are 40-by-40 angle welded over for double strength. 

All bins are welded to Australian Standards EN 12079 and available in a high performance industrial enamel coating. Matthew says that ultimately, the company’s strong product and customer service offering speaks for itself. 

“Our turnaround for quotes is generally 24 to 48 hours, including bin specifications with length, width, height and a 3D graphic,” he says.

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