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Thanks for checking back with us here at WAOC this week, I’m Marty T Hawkins, I hope everyone’s having a great one! I’m not sure what all we’re going to end up talking about today, I want to talk about the Slip-sheet and Clamp trucks for sure and I’ve got a few more bullet points in front of me but I wanted to share a quick story I got this week. So here’s the scenario, An Order Selector sharing “so I decided to give all that planning and goal stuff a shot. In December I decided to write out what I wanted to do in 2019. In January I started speaking up at my start up meeting, I used a few of those topics I heard on your Podcast. I quit talking in the aisles and focus on every batch now. I’m pulling 60 more cases an hour and I have not had a mis-ship this month, and only 1 short, which I’m sure the driver just didn’t deliver. I’m making a little over $2/hr more so far this month in incentives, I’ll be listening all year. I love hearing a good success story, I’ve reached out to a few listeners that’s working their plans and I hope to maybe even have 1 or 2 of them join us for an episode. If you have or know of a successful goal and plan coming together shoot us an email to host@warehouseandoperationsasacareer.com so I can share it with the others!
OK, the slip sheet and clamp attachments. We’ve spoken about the slip-sheet before, our friend Lavoil, quite the professional operator shared his expertise with us back in episode 56 so let’s talk about the clamp truck this week! I’ll include two resource articles in todays show notes in case you’d like to check them out. One from https://www.toyotaforklift.com/blog/under-pressure-choosing-the-right-clamp-force-control-type and one from https://raymondhandling.com/learn/library/what-is-a-carton-clamp-and-why-do-i-need-one/ I learned to operate the clamp on an old Hyster, unloading washers and dryers from rail cars. I loved that job, now back then we didn’t have automatic adjustments and pretty much had to work with our maintenance men to adjust pressures, it wasn’t difficult but we could only adjust the squeeze or I think our maintenance guy called it capture pressure by only a few pounds on my particular lift. But that worked out fine because my lift pretty much only moved washers and dryers all day!
More and more companies are using the slip sheet or clamps now for their productivity. In many instances you can remove the manual unloading step within a floor load by driving into the trailer, clamping the load, bringing it out and placing it on the pallet. And that was the tricky part for me with the washer and driers, I’d place them on a custom pallet, it’d hold two side by side, and then I’d pick up the pallet with the clamp and move it over to the staging area for a forklift to haul it over to the aisles. Anyway, so on a clamp truck your hydraulic controls operate the squeeze of your clamps. I’ve seen some attachment units use the side-shift system be used for your clamp pressure. In many instances your going to be using a sit-down or stand up lift with an attachment. Something your maintenance department has installed on a older lift maybe. Now there’s some really nice and fancy units out there, and there great in a high volume facility that’s primary using clamps but I’ve only experience their use as an additional tool or unit, maybe being used like 20% of the day.
The paper industry has some high tech machines. You can lift those huge round rolls, rotate them 180 degrees and store them on top of each other with them. All digital and programed for the item and weight your carrying or lifting.
I’ve worked around Carton Clamps mostly, and there really the most versatile of all the clamps. A few of others commonly used are the Fork Clamp and its really best for those awkward loads. It lets the operator position the forks to clamp on to the product, really helping with wear and tear on the pallets. Then you have the Bale Clamp, you can pick up any type of bale with those units. What else, oh the Drum Clamp, you’ll see the Drum Clamp in petroleum and chemical industries, you know, like moving 55-gallon drums around.
And today there’s several different Clamp force controls or systems you might be using. I have not personally driven any of the new units utilizing them yet, however after learning about em today I can’t wait to run into one out in the field next week! Today we have the Three Position Pressure Regulators. As the name implies the driver has an adjustment in the cab within reach with 3 preprogramed settings. There great when there’s not a lot of variety in what we’ll be lifting. Next is the Hydraulic Force Control. HFC is a hydraulically controlled automatic force system that will adjust the clamp force proportionally to the weight of your load. This system is cool because it requires no input from the operator as it works solely on its own to apply the correct pressure to each load!
Another one I read about, and I found all three of these in that Toyota article, is the Adaptive Force Control. Kind of like the HFC it automatically sets the pressure but there primarily used with roll paper attachments. You’ll probably see these regulators on the more advanced systems, ones using computer programs and they can be adjusted right from a laptop or desk computer. Pretty high tech right?
I’m asked all them time if It’s hard to learn to operate the slip sheet or clamp trucks. It’s really just a forklift. And as we’ve learned experience is how we learn to drive a forklift. I mean Safety is being a lift driver. If we’re always focused on our environment, aware of our surroundings and have been trained to the piece of equipment we’re driving I think any safe lift driver can learn the clamp and slip sheet attachment pretty easily. The key is to go slow and low, take your time, and again I’ll throw in my operate it safely slogan. Oh, one more thing about a slip sheet blade and your clamp blades, treat them right, don’t bend them up or scrap them. Please don’t use them improperly, there expensive to replace and you’ll end up damaging your freight if there not true in any way. Check them out on both your pre-trip and post-trip reports, it’ll keep everybody safe!
You know, more and more fork units have our scanning equipment actually mounted on our lifts now. I saw a couple the other day that were bolted to the headache bars or overhead grate of the lifts. Those are great, kind of out of the way and definitely easier to use than a hand-held unit but I noticed because different operators are different heights they can be in our way or line of site. Be sure that your comfortable and can see well though. Let your maintenance department know if it needs to be moved a little to the right or left, up or down. Be comfortable, I guarantee you’ll be more productive!
If you drive a slip sheet or clamp truck holler at us, host@warehouseandoperationsasacareer.com tell us a little about your experiences. Remember to check in with us through out the week on Facebook and Twitter too, using that @whseandops , I’m learning a lot from everyone on the Warehouse and Equipment Operators Community on Facebook too!
Well until next week, be productive, be prosperous and please be Safe doing it!