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Ingersoll-Rand portable compressors form the core of a range of new radio-controlled, hydraulic track-mounted compressors available from Seaham-based Hirecorp UK.

The track-mounted compressors have been designed to solve the problem of delivering and moving compressors around sites with restricted access, soft or muddy ground and uneven terrain. Russ Cooper, manager of Hirecorp UK, said: ‘For many years our managing director, Dave Gowans, had been nurturing the idea of a self-propelled, remote-controlled air compressor to solve the access problems we have encountered on sites around the country. This has resulted in the development of the new tracked units utilizing the Ingersoll-Rand range of compressors.’

Hirecorp UK have mounted Ingersoll-Rand compressors on vulcanized rubber tracks to provide the manoeuvrability and low ground-bearing pressure needed to deliver the compressors to inaccessible sites. The compressors’ low centre of gravity allows them to travel easily up gradients and across uneven ground. The use of radio controls optimizes safety by allowing the operator to unload the compressor from the back of a truck and operate its movements on to site from a remote position. Hirecorp minimized development and product costs by utilizing power from the compressor engine, thereby eliminating the purchase and service costs of an extra engine in the package. Non-toxic, biodegradable oil is used in the hydraulic system to mitigate against any possibility of ground contamination.

The prototype unit is based on the 14/115 model, part of Ingersoll-Rand’s new 7/170 family of portable compressors. Hirecorp are also producing a track-mounted model based on the larger 21/215 compressor.