Picture this. A truck driver has to load and unload construction materials at twenty stations. The driver repeatedly parks, exits the vehicle and climbs underneath the truck-mounted forklift attached to the vehicle’s rear. There, the driver manually triggers two metal bars that secure the forklift. This is dangerous and tedious… and no longer necessary. To solve the problem, Aventics created a preassembled all-in-one truck-mounted forklift in the Netherlands, with pneumatics assuming the work behind this task.
Drivers no longer have to climb underneath the forklifts and manually remove the safety bars.
With truck-mounted forklifts, truck drivers no longer have to wait for the customer to provide a means of transportation; they are able to complete more loading processes each day. But commercial vehicle traffic has strict safety requirements. The mountings must be able to hold machines heavier than 1,000 kg, even when potholes or speed bumps strain the mountings or cobblestones give the vehicle a shake. This is the role of the two safety bars under the truck-mounted forklift.
Aventics specialists have now put together system solution for a trailer manufacturer that the company delivers preassembled. This system covers different designs for all brands of truck-mounted forklift models. The complete package consists of two PRA ISO pneumatic cylinders (50-mm bore by 800-mm stroke) with trunnion mounting, one manually operated valve, one AS2 pressure regulator, and the pneumatic tubing/fittings as well as the required mounting components.
Truck-mounted forklifts attached at the rear of a truck speed up loading and unloading
With this equipment, the driver pushes the lever on the valve downward and the two cylinders pull the safety bars below the forklift away. This increases safety for the driver. Once the truck-mounted forklift is loaded, the pneumatics return the safety bars back to their original position. The components are tailored to the special requirements of harsh truck applications. They are resistant to wind and weather, water splash, and the vibrations and shocks that occur during daily operation. This is where pneumatics can truly shine as a robust, easy-to-operate technology.
The Aventics team created a single material number for each material kit. The Laatzen plant in Germany sends the components to Boxtel, in the Netherlands. There, they are preassembled into ready-to-install modules by the Dutch employees and then delivered to the customer.
As of this year, AVENTICS also collaborates with Quickstra and De Kruif, two dealers and maintenance specialists for truck-mounted forklifts in the Netherlands, because the pneumatically automated safety system is also suitable for retrofitting. In the Netherlands alone, more than 3,000 truck-mounted forklifts are currently in use.
Aventics
www.aventics.com/us
Filed Under: Cylinders & Actuators, Pneumatic Tips
