Those tasked with designing bespoke forklift attachments need to be willing to learn from those who use them
One of the keys to effective customisation is the ability to listen. Beyond their engineering expertise or the past success of their companies, those tasked with designing bespoke forklift attachments need to be willing to learn from those who use them.
They need to meet them, talk to them, and see them work. On top of this, as the following case studies illustrate, they need to ensure the devices they produce meet the challenges required of them.
From rotators to carton clamps
Custom attachments represent a major proportion of Cascade Corporation’s business. In fact, according to Rick Whiting, the company’s head of global product management, worldwide nearly 70% of all Cascade products are customised.
“We can customise anything – any attachment, fork, mast – for all types of trucks such as forklifts, AGVs, telehandlers, and more,” says Whiting. “If the customer can dream it, Cascade can build it.”
Cascade designed this high-capacity rotator with jaws to hold a bucket for dumping large, heavy loads
Customer involvement is critically important when undertaking such projects.
“Direct communication with end users provides vital information needed to deliver an effective solution and avoid loss of critical details,” explains Whiting.
Two unrelated, and very different, examples illustrate the company’s approach to projects of this type.
The first involves an underground mining operation in the US, which needed to clear out old shafts and tunnels.
“They were using a standard lift truck with long forks and chains to slowly lower a bucket into the mine shaft, bring it up, then rig it to lift truck forks and reconfigure chains to dump out 11,300kg of rock, boulders and mud,” explains Whiting.
“As such, they required an extremely high-capacity rotator with jaws to hold a bucket for dumping these large, heavy loads.”
Meeting this challenge, Cascade came up with a new rotator (pictured above) with jaws designed to better secure a large, heavy bucket for dumping instead of using chains.
According to Whiting, the device was so effective that it reduced the handling time to a few minutes, compared to over a half an hour with the previous process.
Meanwhile, in the second example, the client (an air conditioning specialist) needed an attachment that could pick up split air conditioning units and cabinet air conditioners and transfer them to nearby warehouses for storage.
“At Cascade, we do offer a wide variety of catalogue Carton Clamp units, however, this customer required special arm length and opening range to properly handle the product,” says Whiting.
Working with an air conditioning specialist, Cascade created a custom carton clamp that was compatible with the client's AGVs
Following the required consultation, Cascade created a custom carton clamp that was compatible with the client’s AGVs and could clamp units in batches of 18 at once (weighing a maximum 950kg), and also take into account the size, weight, and handling process required for each of the loads.
In addition, the finished unit (pictured, right) was equipped with an automatic force control system, which helps prevent product damage while clamping.
According to Whiting, Cascade’s global footprint strengthens its capacity to undertake this sort of work.
“With over 30 locations around the world, Cascade can provide that global support with local, boots on the ground expertise,” he says, adding that the organisation has the flexibility to maintain touchpoints throughout the production of each custom attachment.
A recent example, in which Cascade was asked to produce tissue roll clamps for AGVs, illustrates the effectiveness of this support model.
“These clamps were designed in Portland, Oregon, manufactured at our Cascade European headquarters in Verona, Italy, and finally shipped to the customer in Japan,” says Whiting.
“Should the need arise, our Cascade Japan team will be able quickly react to support and service the tissue roll clamps onsite.”
Hydraulic spreader bar meets multidirectional forklift
A manufacturer of multidirectional forklifts, straddle carriers, and innovative materials handling solutions, Combilift describes customisation as being “at the heart of its business”.
The new configuration means a process that previously took 40 minutes can be done in just 10 minutes
“From the start, our focus has been on delivering industry-specific materials handling equipment, which allows our customers to handle long, heavy, or awkward loads safely and efficiently,” says Colin Gray, the company’s regional sales manager.
“Combilift recognised early that a wide range of bespoke attachments, combined with the multidirectional capabilities of our forklifts, adds significant value to handling procedures,” says Gray.
Combilift’s multidirectional forklifts, such as the C-Series, are designed to work as regular counterbalance forklifts, but at the flick of a switch, can change the direction of their wheels. Allowing for sideways navigation in very narrow aisles and through doorways when transporting long loads (such as pipes or tubes), this also keeps the load low to the ground.
To illustrate the effectiveness of this combination of multidirectional forklifts with customised attachments, Gray points to the example of a client, who had undergone major expansion and needed to increase materials handling capacity.
“The client handled insulated roof panels and bundles measuring up to 12m x 3m wide, and weighing up to 7T,” says Gray. “These bulky, high-value loads were difficult to transport safely using conventional forklifts.”
What was required, therefore, was a customised wide hydraulic adjustable spreader bar that would allow the operator to lift the long bundles and loads safely and evenly, while maintaining stability during transport.
The solution delivered involved integrating a highly customised 6m extendable four-fork wide hydraulic spreader bar, featuring 2.5m long forks, with a Combilift multidirectional C-Series 8T electric model with a 5.5m mast.
“The extendable feature gives the attachment the adaptability to adjust the positioning and distance between the forks to support the different load sizes and lengths of the wide and fragile panels,” says Gray.
“The insulated panels are supported at four separate points, with weight evenly distributed and lifting force spread across the four lifting points to prevent bending of the load or product damage.”
According to Gray, this new configuration allows the operator to lift a full truck load in a single movement. It means that the entire process, which previously required multiple lifts and took 40 minutes to complete, can be done in just 10 minutes.
The solution involved integrating a 6m extendable four-fork wide hydraulic spreader bar with a Combilift multidirectional C-Series 8-tonne electric model forklift
Asked about the role of collaboration in such projects, Gray says it is essential.
“By sharing load specifications, workflow details, and site constraints, clients enable our engineers to deliver fully integrated material handling solutions rather than generic equipment that only partially meets requirements,” says Gray.
For this project, during the on-site consultation and site survey, the Combilift team was able to study the client’s operations and analyse relevant pain points and operational challenges.
“Getting customer’s input expressing what challenges they had in daily operations, it became apparent that product damage due to inappropriate lifting was an important issue,” says Gray.
“Thanks to our attachment and by lifting the load by specific support points, we managed to greatly reduce that problem.”
The Weston “V” Cradle
Based in the North of England, Weston Handling (WH) has dedicated the past 25 years to the design and production of unique forklift attachments.
The stacker is fitted with a small swing jib crane, which fits onto the top of the truck's mast
Though small in size, the company exports over 70% of its custom attachments (primarily to Europe and the US) and boasts a customer base that includes several international blue-chip clients.
As managing director Stephen Weston explains, WH is focussed on the niche (though global) market of flexible packaging. The company deals, for example, with clients who manufacture paper and plastic film for banknotes, boxes, food packaging, and so on.
“WH’s success lies in not just designing lifting attachments but developing materials handling ‘solutions’ that take into account where the product is coming from, where it is going to, and how it will work in the production environment,” says Weston.
Often, WH’s attachments are multi-functional.
Examples include the company’s slitter unload systems, which tackle the laborious task of unloading small rolls from horizontal winder shafts, for stacking vertically on a pallet.
As manual handling regulations have become tighter and operator welfare is given greater priority, WH has responded by developing unique attachments to improve productivity.
“Almost everyone is familiar with labels on bottles and cans, and with products like sweets and dishwasher tablets in branded plastic pouches,” says Weston. “But few people know that the individual packet/label branding, is first printed multiple times across large reels, measuring up to 1,600mm x 1,000mm.”
WH specialises in coming up with effective ways to handle these types of reels.
The Weston “V” Cradle, which the company is currently producing for a UK packaging company, is an example of these slitter unload attachments.
The stacker to be used in the application will have its hydraulics modified to power the lifting of the cradle from vertical to horizontal, so it can unload a full stack of slit rolls in one go.
The WH range of slitter unload systems helps maximise productivity and enhance workplace safety
The model pictured above includes a second attachment, a small swing jib crane, which fits onto the top of the truck’s mast. It supports a 24V hoist on a rolling trolley and a vertical roll lifter that grips the rolls at their core.
In this way, fitted with two attachments, the stacker eliminates the need to manually handle the heavy slit rolls.
As Weston points out, WH is prepared to go the extra mile to ensure the voices of those who matter the most, namely the operators who will be using their finished products, are heard.
In this case, having carried out a site survey and noted the operators’ preferences for handling rolls from machine to pallet, the company arranged for a group of these operators to try out a similar attachment at another client’s premises.
Providing an opportunity to see what was possible and the contrast between manual handling and the alternative, they were able to evaluate the benefits first-hand. Like the other case studies mentioned, this client involvement in the customisation process is set to ensure the final product is not only fine-tuned but as effective as possible.
Published on 12 March, the first of our two-part series on customised forklift attachments can be found here.
Discover more about the customisation options offered by our special contributors by visiting this dedicated Virtual Showroom.
For this report we interviewed the following industry specialists:
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