h a l f b a k e r yViva los semi-panaderos!
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Having worked in the transport industry, I recall that there's considerable downtime and expense in having forklift operators load and unload vehicles.
The Truck Loader is a conveyor floor for flatbeds and pantechnicons. With sufficiently low gearing the load on a truck can be simply loaded or
unloaded with a compatible conveyor, built into the loading dock, and a little help from gravity and a power take-off from the truck's engine.
To load the truck, switch on the floor and push pallets of material down the slight incline and onto the truck's conveyor floor. They stack up against the front of the trailer.
To unload, simply reverse.
Coming soon, models for airliners and ships.
inside airline baggage conveyor
http://www.osha.gov...agecompartment.html
The last sentence alludes to such systems. [FarmerJohn, Oct 05 2004, last modified Oct 17 2004]
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Not quite, [BB], but close. I saw this more like the luggage carousels at airports. It will handle loose loads, but is particularly suited to palletised freight. |
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We've had these in our passenger planes a few years for loading bags; saved a lot of backs. |
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I can see some sort of mechanism being helpful for extremely uniform loads but, forklifts are still used to transport the pallets to and from the loading area so they aren't out of the picture. (Unless you are strong enough to carry the loaded pallets on your own. In which case, for my own health, I withdraw any questions about this idea.) |
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Will there be some sort of slippage built in to the conveyor or pallets so that when the first pallet hits the front of the trailer the belt can continue to move? Or would the pallets have to all be pre-loaded on to the incline so that there is no space present between them? Or would you stop and start the conveyor floor awaiting the next pallet to eliminate gaps between pallets? |
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Your idea could certainly accomplish increased efficiency at load time by eliminating the time it takes the empty (therefore non-productive) forklift to exit the truck and lift the next pallet. |
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If the goal is to stage the pallets with forklifts over a period of time when the to-be-loaded truck is not present then there would be a lot of benefit if the highest cost in the operation is the idle truck in the loading bay. In that case it seems that it might be more effective overall to pre-load a solid platform that could be hauled in to the truck all at once thereby making your idea more friendly to non-uniform cargo. |
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One operational downside to my interpretation of your idea is that increased staging space might be required at the loading bay. But, without requiring increased staging space, you're still at the mercy of forklifts delivering the pallets to the loading mechanism at load time. |
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Not quite so much as you think. With a gravity feed system you could achieve a fairly quick loadout time just by pushing pallets in the general direction of the truck and letting floor level channelling do most of the work. The saving lies in the single handling of palletised freight, particularly unloading. |
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Hmmm, idea extension... holonomic castors under pallets. |
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Oftentimes, rather than load truck with all pallets uniformly lined up with narrower open end facing entry, a skilled forklift operator staggers the load to save transportation costs.
For example, rather than line up pallets as such:
40 x 48/40 x 48
40 x 48/40 x 48
40 x 48/40 x 48
40 x 48/40 x 48...
Truck has greater fill by loading pallets:
40 x 48/48 x 40
48 x 40/40 x 48
40 x 48/48 x 40
48 x 40/40 x 48...
Would the conveyer system be able to accomodate this type of (un)loading? |
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Different pallet system here, I suspect. Ours are 1200mm (48in) x 1200mm (48in), solid sides comprise two of the three rails. Fork can only pick up from North or South, not East or West. |
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Standard flatbed trailer is 40ft x 8ft, so it will take them best in two simple rows of ten. |
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New truck standard here is "B double"... articulated 20ft trailer behind prime mover, articulated (under rear of first trailer and front of second trailer) again to 40ft trailer. Axle config is 1 x steer, 2 x drive, 3 x follow, 3 x follow. That makes them a 34 wheeler, with a maximum tare (carry weight) of 34,000 kg on 30 pallets. This improves carrying capacity over the old format 1 steer, 2 drive, 3 follow... 22 wheels, 22,000 kg on 20 pallets. |
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It also makes them more dangerous to passenger traffic, in my view. |
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Re loading and unloading with your stacking system... probably yes, though there may be some interlocking problems. |
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The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of prepositioning loading on the dock, back the truck up and press a button. Truck loads, drives off, another backs up to a prepositioned load... |
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The problem with side loading a truck is that the fork needs room to manoeuvre between the truck it's loading and the one next door. This way would see forks carrying straight up and down their own "loading corridor". |
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It would also save construction costs on loading facilities/warehouses. |
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In that case, what you would have a need for is a container within a container. The inner container which houses the palleted goods would be a necessity for several reasons:
Chief among them, securing the load to the sides where necessary to prevent load shift. The sides should be ribbed, not solid, as this allows ease of strapping and most importantly for inter>state/national shipping - Customs. By that token, it would revolutionize the Customs and Shipping industries. |
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there is something very similar to this used to load the new a300 airplanes, where the luggage is packed into containers prior to being loaded on the airplane.
also I have a truck with rollers on the floor, allowing me to roll pallets to the back without using a pallet jack. The only problem is that I have to secure the goods very well, else they roll around when the truck is moving. |
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Thumb, shrinkwrapping pallets obviates most of the load shifting issues. |
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Senatorjam, do you you use Pogo Sticks to prevent movement? They are very effective, though you must have the liner of the 'pan' fitted with the sockets, for the cleats on the Pogo Sticks to work. |
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[UB] the side of the truck is equipped with cleats, so I use bungy cords to secure pallets |
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Hmmm...inflatable cargo stabilizing bladders affixed to the walls of the trailer? |
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