Useful addition to the fleet

There's much more to a forklift truck these days than just the vehicle - there is a whole market dedicated to the accessories and attachments that can be fitted to the trucks. Potentially, truck users in the manufacturing sector could need any number of specialist attachments for handling raw materials or finished goods, such as reels, drums and customised forks, or they could require technology that can be fitted to the trucks to enable them to weigh loads or monitor equipment performance. Many of these accessories and technological features are offered by the truck manufacturers themselves, but there remains a healthy market for third party providers. Take the recent sizeable order from Dairy Crest for example (see pxx), for 130 new forklift trucks from Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi's dealer Jofson arranged for 45 trucks to be fitted with Davis Derby's TruckLOG Access Control Plus and Access Only keypad systems for use on three of the Dairy Crest sites. With Davis Derby's technology, smartcards can be programmed with a single expiry date. This date can ensure that once a driver's materials handling licence has expired, he or she will no longer be able to activate the forklift truck. System reports flag any forthcoming deactivations so that necessary action can be taken. Davis Derby says this function will prove particularly useful for organisations which use temporary drivers. UK distributor of Cat Lift Trucks, Briggs Equipment, has recently launched Speedshield, which it describes as an asset management tool. The SpeedShield system is exclusive to Briggs and it gives real-time information on truck speed, efficiency, damage and misuse. This information can be accessed on any web-enabled PC. A key feature of the system is checklist enforcement: this encourages best practice behaviour by prompting the start-up checklist, which drivers must carry out before using the equipment. This gives users a paperless, online compliance record - any exceptions cause the equipment to lock out and the system advises the appropriate supervisors. This checklist feature is standard, and other options include zoning of variable speed limits around a site or multiple sites; the ability for managers to control fleet performance and speed in real-time from any online PC; impact detection data; and an auto-shutdown suite, to enforce seatbelt use, for impact emergency shutdowns or to idle time-outs. With a control box rated up to 90v DC, Speedshield can be hard wired into any truck without the need for converters or additional connectors. Once fitted, Briggs will train the customer to use the system for independent fleet control. The system operates via global roaming GSM that sources and connects to the strongest signals. "We are already on the next stage of development and in the very near future this technology could allow customers to pinpoint unit locations on online maps, anywhere in the world, locating assets to within a few feet," says Briggs' Les Knight, and the introduction of SpeedShield is "breaking the mould and putting the customer at the heart of their fleet with their own online reporting and control". Briggs has already implemented SpeedShield at Kanes Foods and several other manufacturers are evaluating the system, such as Honda, Mars and Nestle. Another company that has staked its place in the forklift accessories market is Transmon Engineering. The company designs and supplies electronic devices and systems to improve the performance of forklift truck fleets. One of its products is the active zone reversing system, which can be fitted to any vehicle and which beeps, in the same way as a car would, when reversing close to a person, object or structure, such as racking. The distance limits are adjustable with warnings that can start from as far as 7m, becoming increasingly louder and an accompanying visual alarm changes from green to amber to red. It can also be set up to automatically apply the park brake if the truck gets within a pre-determined distance of another object. "Even my car has a reversing sensor, yet many businesses fail to address the hazards and related costs associated with poorly reversing forklifts or other heavy plant," says Paul Sercombe from Leicester-based Transmon. "Drivers can lose concentration, particularly in busy stop-start operations." Transmon makes several electronic devices to help with safety and management of forklift fleets. Many are marketed under the 'Savure' brand. The Engine Savure, for example, alerts the driver to high coolant temperature and low oil pressure, shutting the engine down after 30 seconds of warning, so protecting the engine. Gear Savure turns a manual truck into an automatic, removing the need for manual gear selection, reducing clutch damage. And Zone Speed Savure prevents the driver from exceeding a pre-defined speed limit within a particular zone, using RFID technology. Overloading forklift trucks has serious safety implications, not to mention the potential mechanical damage to lifting and drive mechanisms. Last year, RDS Technology launched Liftlog 100+ (pictured left), an on-board weighing system for trucks. The device is useful in applications where weights of multiple pallets of product need to be checked, or where weight limits are to be adhered to. Floor-mounted platform scales are often sited in remote corners of the warehouse or loading areas, so the Liftlog 100+ provides an efficient means of checking load weights and reducing vehicle movements around the site. The display has a bar graph illustrating current load versus maximum capacity. It also has an overload alarm which sounds when the load is approaching capacity. The Liftlog 100+ can be fitted to new and used vehicles. Simple savings As well as high-tech accessories, there are also numerous items which, on the face of it, seem very simple, but which can nonetheless save users significant sums of money. Amcor Flexibles Cumbria, part of global packaging giant Amcor, had been suffering product damage at its Workington site. It now has a simple solution which paid back on day one and which is continuing to save money on an ongoing basis. Located close to Workington, the Amcor Flexibles Cumbria operation produces packaging for the snacks and confectionery markets. Reels of film weighing up to 800kg arrive at the site, where they are printed and cut before being distributed to the factories of some of the UK's leading snack and confectionery manufacturers. More than 50 reels of film are delivered to Amcor's Workington facility each day; trailers are unloaded using 2.5 and 1.8 tonne capacity counterbalanced forklift trucks. The reels arrive on shrink-wrapped pallets which means that special forklift attachments - such as clamps, for example - are not required and allows the reels to be delivered directly to Amcor's warehouse and put away within the company's racked storage system. However, a waste reduction study highlighted that packaging film was often damaged as part of this unloading and put-away process. As the truck forks entered the pallet, the outer layers of film were forced against the back of the forks or the fork carriage, causing an indentation. Any imperfections in the film quality could cause major problems during the printing process, so staff were instructed to remove and dispose of all indented film before a reel was used. "We were seeing significant film wastage every week," says production manager Gary Baker. "Not every reel would be damaged, but it was higher than acceptable" The company approached Jayline Products, a supplier of attachments for forklift trucks, and its heavy duty load protectors were fitted to the forks of the company's lift truck fleet. Made in the UK from heavy duty moulded rubber, Jayline's patented protectors fit to the rear face of the forks and absorb the impact of an incoming load. They provide a cushioned barrier between the load and the back of the forks. As the pallet is lifted, the protector prevents the load from hitting the truck's forks or the fork carriage. The protectors come in a range of sizes, from four to eight inches, and can be fitted to all types of equipment - they are fixed in place with a robust strap and their size means the truck's lifting capacity is not affected. At Amcor, these protectors eliminated the film damage problem with immediate effect. As a result, Baker confirms that significant savings are being made and production efficiency has increased.