Name of Project: Special Application Upgrade for Indoor Dock
Industry: Automotive
Project Summary: Provide solution to eliminate safety concerns on an indoor dock with a 7% decline approach
Project Captain: Kevin Roy
General Contractor: Applied Handling, Inc.
Equipment Manufacturer: Leum Engineering & Rite-Hite
An Applied Handling Customer had a unique indoor dock that presented safety concerns for personnel and product. The dock had an Edge of Dock leveler with a 16” lip and serviced several different types of vehicles with deck heights 38” to 51”. To get the floors of these trucks high enough to utilize the Edge of Dock leveler required the Dock Attendants to manually place several different sizes of wooden risers in the truck approach.
Even with these wooden ramps the small range of motion of the EOD lip created a significant “speed bump effect” at the trailer opening and required slow, careful movements when loading or unloading a truck. The decks in most trailers were still sloped towards the back of the trailer and equipment on dollies had to be carefully placed to avoid rolling back off the trucks.
A plan was developed to put a traditional hydraulic powered pit style leveler in place of the EOD to provide a greater range of motion to meet the different truck heights coming to the dock. However, an Air Handling Shaft was discovered under the floor and pit style leveler could not be utilized.
Applied Handling presented a new, unique solution, the Top of Dock Leveler from Leum Engineering. This 8 foot long unit functions like a pit mounted leveler in greatly reducing the “speed bump” effect of the EOD leveler. Top of Dock means just that – the unit is surface mounted to the floor eliminating the need for a traditional dock leveler pit.
To bring all of the different trailers up to the working range of the Top of Dock Leveler Applied Handling proposed installing a Leum Engineering Hydraulic Truck Riser.
This unit is infinitely adjustable with the push of a button and eliminates the need for Dock Attendants being down in the dock approach.
Due to the unique layout of the existing dock area Applied Handling and Leum Engineering put together a customized system that took into account the narrow space available, existing containment drain and clean out cover for the containment well. New stairs and railings were added to increase access and safety.
Additional bumpers were added to accommodate the Customer’s narrowest and lowest box truck.
The end result is that the trailers are much more level with the facility floor making the loading of dollies and pallet loads much safer. The elimination of the “speed bump effect” has decreased load/unload times. Dock Attendants are no longer in the truck approach placing and adjusting wooden risers.
