Dedicated attachments aid palletless transportation
May 1st 2007 Standard forks are the lift
truck's traditionally supplied
attachment, but the trend
towards depalletising, repalletising
and palletless handling calls for
other solutions. Mike Barton of
B&B Attachments outlines some
of the options
Large Surface Clamp
Suitable for the palletless
handling of carton-boxed goods, a
large-surface clamp attachment
has rubber-coated arms that grab
cubed loads from the side. Loads
can then be lifted with a load
carrier (eg pallet) from roller belts
or from pallets. Some boxes can
be taken from the top of the cube.
To avoid damage to the load,
pressure regulation valves form
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.
Use of a Pusher
Bagged goods such as coffee
and sugar cannot be grabbed from
the sides, but can be depalleted by
means of a pusher that consists of
the carrying part, usually a plate,
and a hydraulically-operated
pushing grate that moves the load
to the front. There are different
options for carrying parts. If, for
example, standard features are
selected, the pallet is held in
position by a little gripper clamp
holding its centre block between
the forks so that it cannot shift
while the load is being pushed off.
The load can be transferred to
another pallet or placed on another
stack; pushing the load to the floor
might prove problematic because
of the pallet height of about 150mm.
Pallet Turnover clamps
This attachment 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 the lower fork
pair can insert the production pallet
under the stack. After closing the
clamp and rotating 180°, the load is
placed on the shipping pallet.
Push-Pull Handling
Where goods are to be shipped
without pallets, or where more
expensive pallets are to be
replaced with cheaper versions, low
height slip sheets are an option. A
push-pull with hydraulically
operated gripper bar at the bottom
of the pushing grate, grabs the flap
of the slip-sheet. Load and sheet
are pulled onto a carrying plate
and moved to the warehouse or
loaded into a container, where
goods and slip sheet are pushed off. More articles from B & B Attachments: | 
