We have been having problems with order picker operators picking off the front of the pallet first and leaving the rear of the pallet stacked or leaving the product unstable. Then when a reach truck operator comes along to pull the pallet, parts go raining down the inside of the rack or worse, on the operator's head. During a recent meeting about this I had a brain fart and remembered the back up camera system I had mouted on my bosses Silverado last year. I contacted the technical dept. of the camera manufacturer (Peak) and found out the system has a LOS range of about 35'. Our racks are only 25'. So, I picked up another camera, went by the golf cart shop and picked up 2 small voltage reducers (to reduce the voltage from 36v to 12v). I cut off the cigarette lighter power connector and wired that to B- and the PC contactor through the voltage reducer on one of my 7400s. I then made a bracket for the camera and mounted it above the reach assy. and the transmitter on the inside, rear of the reach carriage. I wired the power for the transmitter/camera to the reach/retract solenoid through the second voltage reducer. When the operator lines up and lifts to his location he presses the retract button. Nothing happens but the camera powers up and he can get a color picture of the pallet and know whether it's safe to pull down. By switching directly from retract to reach he can then watch his forks going into the pallet on a 3.5" monitor mounted on the front safety glass. I plan on testing this for about a month before I add it to any other reach trucks. The safety coordinator at one of the other warehouses I manage has already called (I just installed this yesterday) wanting to know if this'll work on their Crowns! If you want to try this or want some pics of it in action drop me an e-mail. My addy is in my profile.
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