Practical innovation
August 1st 2004

Charlotte Stonestreet visited loading bay and door specialists, Stertil Stokvis to find out more about the companys approach to new product design and innovation One of the most important parts of any warehouse, distribution or production facility is the loading bay. Get it right and a well designed and properly equipped loading bay will be an asset to your operation, but get it wrong and the consequences can be very costly. One company specialising in the loading bay is Stertil Stokvis. Following an amalgamation and relocation, the organisation now is reaping the benefits of a management restructure. Financial results for the first half of this year have been ahead of forecasts and the company is at the forefront of the industry in developing and launching innovative new products. In common with much of the materials handling sector, the basic ideas behind the loading bay have been around for many years and, as such, the technology used tends to be several steps removed from the cutting edge. However, when you consider the actual physical role of the loading bay you soon realise that this is not necessarily the place for sophisticated design and delicate electronics. Essentially, what you are doing at the loading bay is hitting a building with a 38t vehicle, slamming open the doors and loading or unloading the contents with heavy duty machines such as forklifts or hand pallet trucks. There is no room for anything but the most robust equipment, says Stertils sales and marketing manager, Mike Bunn. In fact, rather than going out to develop that mythical design that is going to completely change the way the loading bay operates, Stertil has a policy of continuously assessing the marketplace and updating its products accordingly using the latest materials and proven technology according to customer needs. These products are not necessarily at the cutting edge of technology, but they are very practical, says Bunn. There are things available on the market that will electronically relay to the control panel all sorts of information about how long the vehicle has been there, what speed it approached the building at and so on. With todays PLCs this is relatively easy to achieve but I think the real value is somewhat questionable. At Stertil we are about providing practical solutions to real problems. PE buffer An example of a practical solution to a real problem comes in the form of Polyethylene (PE) buffers. Every loading bay has dock buffers to prevent the vehicle from hitting the building fabric. Bunn estimates that at least 90% of the buffers used in the UK are made of rubber or a rubber compound, sometimes reinforced with textiles. The main problem with rubber buffers is that over time they inevitably get chewed up. As they get chewed up they get thinner and thinner, and the protection they afford to the building becomes diminished, explains Bunn. As a result a lot more shock is transferred into the building. The vehicle is also allowed to get closer and closer to the building fabric, which then causes damage, putting the cost of building maintenance up considerably. You can go round any loading bay that has not been particularly well designed, or where the house keeping is not great, and you can see the cladding damage around the doorways and witness the potential costs. Stertils PE buffer features a strong steel backing chassis, into which slides a high modulus polyethylene plate. This is retained at the bottom by a simple locking bar. Unlike normal rubber buffers that are bolted on to the wall from the front, the PE buffer had no holes for the vehicle to catch on. The low friction nature of the polyethylene means that any up and down movement caused by driving forklifts in and out of the vehicle does not damage the buffer. Obviously, over time the PE buffer will sustain damage and this is generally going to be in the top inside corner. When this does occur it is a simple task to unclip the polyethylene plate and turn it upside down, allowing wear to occur on the opposite corner. In contrast, changing a rubber buffer can be arduous, particularly if the bolts have been damaged and have to be drilled out, which is often the case. This is not a major new product launch that we would particularly publicise, but it is a really important part of the loading bay, says Bunn. To me this is what innovation is about. The use of modern materials in a proper function, for practical purposes, resulting in reduced maintenance costs. HW dock leveller As well as developing new products using new materials, Stertil looks at how the market is changing and designs accordingly. This is the case with the new HW ergonomic dock leveller. More and more operations, particularly in retail, are tending to move away from forklifts in the loading bay, opting instead to use roll cages and hand pallet trucks. As a result, the HW has been designed specifically to accommodate smaller capacity materials handling equipment, featuring a lip that changes angle through the range of travel. This provides a very smooth transition for small-wheeled trucks. In practical terms this means that the tip of the lip always sits on the vehicle deck, adjusting with the height of the vehicle deck as it is loaded or unloaded. This reduces the risk of damage to materials handing equipment by eliminating the need to effectively negotiate a step if the vehicle is below the leveller. If the vehicle is above the leveller there is no risk of the equipment grounding on the crown angle between the lip and the vehicle. It also reduces the risk of injury to personnel by eliminating tripping hazards. At the building end of the HW leveller, the rear hinge has been imbedded in a polyurethane strip and sited as close to the back of the unit as possible. This means that the hinge opening is always kept to a minimum, reducing the clearance gap between the back of the leveller and the building floor. The polyurethane strip absorbs energy as materials handling equipment is moved over it, reducing impact on both equipment and operatives. In another example of using new materials, the HW is available in a low noise version where the standard tread plate on the deck and lip has been coated with Twaron-Polyurea anti-skid coating. Highly slip-resistant, the coating has been developed specifically for pallet trucks with hard wheels that often create excessive noise on hard tread or chequer plate. The Twaron-Polyurea transmits much less vibration, reducing noise levels by as much as 16dB(A). Like any other industry, health and safety is increasingly important in the loading bay sector. One of the biggest issues safety-wise on a loading dock is the trailer creeping away from the building while loading or unloading with a forklift, says Bunn. The operative travels into the trailer with his forklift and the energy, the inertia, has to go somewhere. As a result, sometimes the trailer inches away from the building until the dock leveller actually falls off the back of the truck and the next time the operative tries to drive the truck back out of the vehicle he just falls off the end. Combilock To prevent this, Stertil has developed the Combilock to retain the vehicle in the correct position throughout loading/unloading. The vehicle drives up to the loading bay and before anything else can happen, the trailer is locked into place. Controlled from the building, the system hydraulically places a wheel block at the rear wheel of the vehicle. A sensor determines the position of the wheel and the block is then automatically extended and pushed against the wheel, restraining the vehicle. Fully suitable for retrofit, the system is integrated into a wheel alignment guide and can be used with other loading bay equipment from any manufacturer. Another simple but effective innovation from Stertil is the introduction of LED traffic lights. According to Bunn, traditional filament bulb traffic lights do not operate particularly well in an environment where heavy vehicles regularly strike the building. As a result, in order to make sure the lights are still working, they have to be regularly checked, which involves personnel walking around a busy, dangerous loading yard. The beauty of a traffic light that uses a cluster of LEDs instead of a single filament bulb is that if one LED stops working, there are still many more that will be functional, says Bunn. Another advantage is that they are so bright you can easily see them, even in bright sunshine. If filament lamps are on a south facing wall where the sun is really bright, they are difficult to see from a distance and people do make mistakes. Service & maintenance With a continuous roll out of new and innovative products it is important that Stertil is able to provide the service and maintenance back-up expected of a market leading company. Reflecting this, recent re-structures at the company have included a complete overhaul of its service department. As well as employing more service engineers, the company has invested in a tracking system for all its service vehicles. This enables immediate identification of the nearest engineer to any call out, keeping expensive downtime to a minimum for the customer. Whether it is loading bay design, equipment, maintenance, or a combination of all three that is most important to you, the chances are Stertil will be able to provide you with what you are looking for. If the dock isnt well designed and efficient, then you cant get the goods in and out the building effectively. And that is a philosophy that underpins everything we try to do, says Bunn. We listen to the client and find out what they need. Everyone wants to operate a loading bay slightly differently; each has their own safety rules, mix of vehicles, site features and so on. At Stokvis we will take everything into consideration and come up with the optimum solution.

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