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38 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 • FOOD LOGISTICS www.foodlogistics.com 'Big Data' as a useful safety tool Perhaps the largest trend not only in the lift truck industry, but in the global f&b; supply chain as a whole, has been the expan- sion of software and technology applications. Facility managers can be overwhelmed by the amount of information they can glean after just a few weeks of using some of the newer fleet management software applications offered today. But when they see the impact this "big data" has on safety, it often proves to be well worth the investment. Fleet management software offers insights into operator data as basic as which opera- tor is on which forklift, to advanced safety features like not allowing certain operators to use certain vehicles where they haven't passed the required safety training. They also offer real-time and actionable fleet data on vehicle impacts and crashes, as well as lots of productivity and uptime data that can get as advanced as the customer desires. "Managers now have real data gathered by the forklift, instead of relying on operator- reported impacts, and it's providing a holistic picture of how the equipment is being used and where and what safety incidents are real- ly taking place," says Andy Smith, director of product management at Crown Equipment. Masters Gallery Foods, a supplier of cheese products headquartered in Plymouth, Wis., made it a priority to improve lift truck safety when they increased from 12 to 19 trucks and 40,000 to 110,000 square feet of warehouse space during an expansion project started in 2012. Since Masters Gallery Foods already had a fleet of Raymond Corp. lift trucks, they chose to install Raymond's iWare- house fleet optimization software. Within the first month, the results in safety, productivity and maintenance made a significant difference inside their expanded main warehouse. "In our first month of using the system, we experienced a total of 45 alerts (impact Sensor Technology Offers Integrated Stability Control To Eliminate Tip-Overs T he Industrial Truck Association (ITA) esti- mates that there are nearly 856,000 forklifts currently in operation in the U.S., with other industry associations estimating a worldwide total of over 6 million. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) records about 100,000 lift truck accidents per year, with a sur- prising total of 85 fatalities annually. Out of those 85 deaths, 42 percent occur when the driver of the forklift tries to jump off a tipping vehicle in a crash. So it's a simple proposition … eliminating lift truck and forklift tip-overs in the warehouse is a major focus for manufacturers and warehouse managers. Not only can mistakes on a lift truck be deadly, they are costly as well. The damage to inventory when a tip-over occurs often results in the cost to replace the lost inventory exceeding the salvage value of the damaged goods. In the case of food and beverage producers and wholesalers where single percentage profit margins are common, it can have devastating effects. One of the ways used to reduce tip-overs in lift trucks and forklifts is through the use of sensor technology integrated into several critical points on a vehicle. The use of sensors allows constant monitoring of a forklift's operation, such as speed, turns and forward and reverse travel. This will detect conditions that might lead to instability and an increased risk of a tip-over. The data is collected on an on-vehicle unit and analysis is done in real time in order to automatically activate a corresponding correction to assist the operator in regaining control. The resulting actions can range from restricting the tilt angle of the mast, limiting the top speed when loaded, or preventing the lifting of the fork height at certain speeds altogether. While some of these systems aren't necessarily new technologies, the progression in sensor technology is making rapid improvement in providing integrated stability con- trol performance more smooth. These systems are typically offered as an add- on option on newer vehicles by the lift truck OEM or dealer. They are starting to gain in popularity, according to SICK AG, a sensor intelligence com- pany based in Germany. Here's a look at the most popular stability control applications on a forklift, according to SICK: • Fork Height: Sensors are used to set maximum height thresholds for load pickup or placement at elevated heights, such as on today's racking systems that are going higher as avail- able space in the warehouse gets smaller. These systems not only prevent tip-overs by restricting the height loads, but the sensors also reduce the risk of damage to pallets when picking because of the inherent accuracy of the pre-determined fork height. A sensor attached to the highest pallet spot on a rack is reflected back to the sensor mounted on the mast. Through laser triangulation, it stops the fork height within one millimeter of the maxi- mum height allowed for safe handling. • Travel Speed: Tip-overs often happen when the lift truck is traveling too fast with a load and turning sharply, or if the load is at an improper height or tilt. Using a closed-loop feedback sens- ing system, the sensor determines if the vehicle's speed exceeds a safe threshold and automatically imposes acceleration limits to prevent a tip-over. • Steering Angle: Using a similar closed- loop incremental encoder and sensor system with speed control, safe steering angles can be verified based on the number of turns of the steering wheel. A sensor near the steering shaft can relay unsafe steering angles instantly to the control sys- tem and restrict the operator's ability to steer the forklift into "unsafe" situations. • Mast Tilt Angle: Sensors can determine if the mast is tilted past a safe range for optimum load stability in two ways. This is done either by determining the distance a mast travels away from a set point (or sensor) or an inductive sen- sor which actually detects the proximity of metal objects without touching them. The inductive sensor detects when the metal mast is within range when its electromagnetic field has been interrupted. Should the mast pass outside of the detection range, the information is relayed to the forklift's control system in order to trigger the cor- responding stabilizing action. • Load Presence: Two types of sensors mount- ed near the base of the forks or on the mast can help detect loads when they are out of view. Using a photoelectric sensor, the absence or presence of a load is detected when a beam of light is reflected off the load (or pallet) back to the receiver. An ultrasonic sensor generates a high-frequency sound wave off the load and back to the sensor, alerting the driver it can safely be loaded onto the forks. • Load Weight: By measuring the amount of hydraulic pressure exerted by a load on the vehicle's forks, pressure sensors can offer a primary or secondary verification of the weight of the load by an on-board forklift scale. The data is transmitted by the sensor to the control system, which can automatically trigger stabilizing actions needed for heavier loads. • Location Sensors: Forklift tip-overs also occur when a vehicle comes in contact with over- head obstacles, beams, fire-protection sprinkler heads or even doorways. To restrict access or trigger speed or mast height limitations in certain areas of the facility, RFID tags are placed on walls and other areas of the warehouse so that when a sensor on the forklift detects a tag, it can imple- ment the appropriate stability measures. Source: Reduce Accidents on Manned Forklifts With Integrated Stability Control, SICK AG, 800-325-7425 or www.sick.com. Image courtesy of Hyster. • Hyster's new line of PSI-made engines feature variable power technology with adjustable performance modes.