Dedicated attachments for palletless transportation
May 1st 2006 Palletless transportation of certain loads can be achieved with standard fork clamps with relevant slip-on arms that embrace the load, usually with dedicated attachments such as block and brick clamps, bale clamps, drum clamps and roll clamps. Mike Barton, managing director of B&B Attachments, explains
The ideal attachment for palletless handling of carton-boxed goods is the large surface clamp.
Large, rubber-coated arms grab cubed loads from the side. Goods can be lifted with a load carrier (eg pallet) from roller belts, or from pallets - which ever way they come.
In addition, some of the boxes can be taken from the top of the cube.
The forklift will carry the loads, place them in containers, on trailers or other load carriers.
To avoid squeezing or other damage to the load, pressure regulations valves form an integral part of the hydraulic system and enable minimum pressure to be applied between the arms. The system can be upgraded to allow the driver to choose from a selection of preset pressures for different loads, or upgraded to a sensor system that automatically selects correct pressure according to the load's volume or weight.
Some goods cannot be grabbed from the sides. Instead, they can be depalleted by means of a pusher, which consists of the carrying part - usually a plate - and a hydraulically operated pushing grate that moves the load to the front. There are different choices for carrying parts.
One method of repalletising is the pallet turnover clamp. This has a rotating arm with fork pairs on both arms. An empty one-way shipping pallet is loaded onto the first (upper) fork pair and, after being rotated 180°, the clamp opens so that the lower fork pair can insert the production pallet under the stack.
After closing the clamp and rotating back 180°, the load is placed on the shipping pallet.
By opening the clamp, the production pallet stays on the upper forks and can be placed on the floor to be returned into the work cycle.
Where goods are likely to be shipped without pallets, or where expensive pallets are to be replaced with a cheaper variety, slip sheets can used. Their low height allows more layers of goods to be stacked in a container or warehouse. They have a flap 10cm long on one side, which is preformed, with an angle of about 30°.
A push-pull is similar to the pusher system, but has a hydraulicallyoperated gripper bar at the bottom of the pushing grate, which grabs the flap of the slip sheet. Slip sheet and load are pulled onto the wide carrying plate and moved to the warehouse or loaded directly into a container or trailer where goods, including slip-sheet, are pushed off.
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