Minnesota, US-headquartered FAST Global Solutions has continued on its path of expansion, an upward trajectory that is being charted in the form of both new manufacturing capacity and new products
In terms of additional capacity, a new FAST manufacturing facility has just opened in Nebraska, the result of the company’s takeover of another firm’s Auburn manufacturing plant. The factory, which produces both GSE and parcel delivery conveyor equipment, offers about 150,000ft2 of additional manufacturing space for FAST; about 140 people are employed at the site.
FAST – which specialises in non-motorised GSE including dollies, baggage carts, stairs, belt loaders and scissor lifts but also produces parcel conveyors and products dedicated to the agricultural market – now has no less than eight manufacturing facilities, seven of them in the US and one a ‘partner facility’ in Macedonia (which has also added further capacity in recent times).
Such growth has been driven by burgeoning demand for FAST’s non-motorised GSE, a welcome trend that has benefited from the expansion of the global e-commerce business and air passenger growth, says FAST’s president, Dane Anderson.
The firm now employs a total of about 860 people, all of whom are owner/employees, a very unusual model but one that has worked – says Anderson – very well for this company.
Meanwhile, FAST has also been growing its product range. The latest product to come off the design board, for which a patent is pending and which has now moved into the serious testing phase, is a new rotomolded baggage cart.
Rotomolding is a manufacturing process that involves a heated hollow mould being filled with a charge or shot weight of material. It is then slowly rotated, causing the softened material to disperse and stick to the walls of the mould. FAST’s rotomolded cart consists of a plastic chassis atop a conventional FAST metal undercarriage/running gear and the new design offers numerous advantages over its traditional steel equivalent, Anderson posits.
First, its rotomolded body is significantly lighter than the steel baggage carts seen all over the world, yet able to take the same weight of load. It doesn’t require painting, and the body doesn’t rust. The cart will be available in many colours, and its colour scheme will be customisable to specific user requirements.
Its panels are modular and can easily be replaced individually in the case of any damage being sustained. Moreover, because the whole cart is easily broken down into pieces, it is easy to ship – an important consideration when large numbers of baggage carts may need to be delivered to a customer.
The floor of the cart is channelled to allow rainwater to drain away more easily, while the channelled structure also cuts down on frictional resistance when handlers are dragging bags in and out of the cart. The pull handles moulded into the end panels are a further benefit for baggage handlers.
A unique feature of the design is an interior light that can also be used to illuminate the top of the cart. The top of the cart can be customised to either display the name of the customer carrier or perhaps an event or a cause of the latter’s choice – a possibly important marketing opportunity, Anderson suggests.
The light is turned off automatically when not required and works off a battery carried under the cart, which is itself powered from a solar panel on the exterior of the unit.
A secondary type of modular component FAST is researching and refining will house marketing messages or branding, somewhat comparable to what one might see on a US taxi cab.
Further testing of the cart, which was available for inspection on the FAST stand at the International Airport Ground Support Equipment show in Las Vegas, is now to take place with a number of major airlines. Trials will be held in extreme climates to evaluate its durability in challenging temperature and weather conditions.
Those trials are expected to take place over a period of between three and six months, with low-rate initial production expected to start somewhere around the end of the first quarter of next year. Full-scale production is tentatively scheduled for the second quarter of 2019.
