More lifts, heavier lifts, lifts in three shifts around the clock \u2013 when it comes to feeding the relentless demand for steel from the world\u2019s mechanical engineering, automotive, shipbuilding, manufacturing and construction industries, there is no time for pause.<\/p>\n
And how to take up the challenge? Stevedoring companies and steel-handling terminals want simplicity and reliability, says Kalmar. But in reality they are also looking for increasingly complex \u201cadded value\u201dfeatures.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn general, steel handling is a very demanding environment and clearly loads are getting heavier and heavier,\u201d says Dan Pettersson, Kalmar\u2019s product line manager for heavy lift trucks. \u201cMost mills are running more or less three shifts year-round. It is a process industry \u2013 you can\u2019t stop, because then the mill would have to stop and that isn\u2019t an option.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there are very high demands on loads and availability of machines.Once in the port, the same type of equipment is needed to handle the goods.Everything is just-in-time. Also, ports do not have that much space, so they can\u2019t afford to get congested with material.You have to keep the material flow going \u2013 we are talking about a whole logistics chain of steel products.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Pettersson says Kalmar works with the customer and the manufacturers of the various types of attachments \u2013 clamp forks, magnets, etc. \u2013 to deliver the right solution.\u201cYou have to consider how do you handle what you want to handle in the most efficient way,\u201d he says. \u201cThe best situation depends on the customer and the sort of set-up. But it is a tough environment you are working in,so you always have to have a robust solution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other issues to be considered include the working surface \u2013 asphalt or concrete, pristine or with holes? \u201cYou must look at the surroundings where the forklift is driven and consider the needs \u2013 is it wide or narrow, etc.,\u201dsays H\u00e5kan Lennartsson,Kalmar\u2019s product line manager for medium trucks.<\/p>\n
\u201cA poor surface can be compensated for.One simple solution is putting a restriction on speed, but that has to be OK with the customer. Or you have an extra reinforced mast and other parts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kalmar has a large number of full maintenance contracts in place for its own machines and also those of its competitors and that is key for many customers, says Dan Pettersson.\u201cUptime is everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steel handling is one of Kalmar\u2019s main focus areas. Last year the company launched its new generation of heavy-lift fork trucks aimed at this sector.The DCF 370, a 37 tonne forklift, is now considered the \u201cbase machine\u201d for handling steel, where previously 32 tonnes was considered the base, says Mr Pettersson. \u201cWeights are increasing and usage is increasing.We can of course go heavier than 37 tonnes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kalmar has also further developed the electronic side of its machines, to deliver all sorts of operational data, including monitoring fuel consumption to help ensure \u201ceco-driving\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis helps customers to monitor driving skills to use the machines most efficiently and keep fuel consumption down,\u201d he says. \u201cThe operator is really controlling a very large portion of the fuel consumption in the way that he or she is driving.That is very important.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another option is a remote machine interface so that data can be transferred directly from the machines into the office \u2013 how many lifts the machine has done, the weights of the lifts, etc.\u201cThis helps to optimise flow in the terminal,\u201d says Mr Pettersson.\u201cIt is important to analyse the data and propose actions based on this.We see that as a way we can support our customers better in the future and we believe that analysis will become much more important in the next few years.\u201d<\/p>\n
One customer even asked for the installation of an alcohol-testing system; the operator has to blow into the testing system before starting the machine. \u201cAt the same time as all this, customers want simple, reliable machines.So it is a balance for us manufacturers to supply machines with the possibility to do these things, but still make it simple,\u201dsays Mr Pettersson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ports are a critical hub in the steel industry\u2019 s just-in-time supply chain.Felicity Landon looks at the challenges<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1171,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-1170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-container-cargo-handling"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1172,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170\/revisions\/1172"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1170"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portstrategy.com\/greenport-congress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=1170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}