Flexco Industries Inc is bringing patent-protected weight-measuring technology to firms operating forklifts, overhead cranes, front-end loaders and legged silos.
The Flex-1500, for instance, helps a forklift operator during daily tasks. The technology seeks to prevent accidents due to overloading and provides an operator with knowledge about the weight of the load in correction with level effect.
"The Flex-1500 is only one application of what our patent- and international patents-pending can do," says Gary Saigh, Flexco director.
Flexco introduced the Flex-1500 to the commercial market in December and has other products in the pipeline and undergoing research and development.
The company organisers received US patent 6845564 in 2005 for measuring the stress, strain and load on any kind or type of solid structure and were approached about a need.
About five years ago, a fatal accident with an order picker at a Montreal facility of The Brick volume furniture retailer prompted Quebec provincial worker safety regulators to take action. The Commission de la Santé et de la Sécurité du Travail du Québec (CSST) directed operators of The Brick to alert or warn an operator when the limit of a forklift or order picker was reached. The limit would be based on the level effect and the height of the load on the machine.
"We had several meetings with The Brick, the CSST and the manufacturer of the forklift/order picker in order to find the right solution with our new technology to prevent such accidents from happening in the future," Saigh says. "We were able meet all their requirements."
Subsequently, Flexco's "board members took the decision to work on other brands, other capacities and other types of forklifts in order to make sure that we were able to meet the market's demands," Saigh notes. "Finally, last December, we were able to launch our safety system, Flex-1500, worldwide."
Flexco had its start in 2003 and employs weight and measurement specialists, electronics engineers, software engineers and R&D specialists in working on solutions to calculate the deflection in any given material.
Flexo's patented Solid Structure Sensor (3D) is suitable as an add-on to any new or existing structure. The upcoming Flex-2500 is a load limiter for overhead cranes. The Flex-LWII is an embedded weighing system for front-end loaders. The Flex-SWII is an embedded weighing system for legged silos. And the future Flex-5000 system is designed to measure movement, deformation or overload for any kind of structure.
Among its goals, Flexco aims to "save lives, reduce the high level of accidents in the forklift industry and help drivers to prevent overloading their equipment," Saigh says. "We want to help the drivers on how to load and where to load their pallet or object on the forks."
Flexco is seeking to establish a distribution network and, simultaneously, work with "partners in all industries and in all geographic regions," he notes.
Saigh is scheduled to discuss the subject during a presentation at the Fork Lift Truck Association annual safety conference on 22 September in Alton, England.
Flexco has 21 employees and agents and is located in a 5,000 sqft (450 sqm) facility in the Montreal borough of LaSalle, at the south western corner of the Island of Montreal.