Lift Truck Tips: Attachment suppliers and users learn new customs

Lift truck owners today benefit from a large variety of options when it comes to customizing a piece of equipment to suit their specific application. More features than ever are available to target needs for performance, productivity, efficiency and ergonomics. But when an application demands an attachment like a paper roll clamp, many assume they are stuck with standard models and specifications. After all, a slightly longer learning curve and a bit of shrinkage are surely less expensive than a fleet of customized attachments. Aren’t they?

“Not so,” says Martin Boyd, global product manager for Cascade Corp. “We have visited many U.S. companies in the paper industry and asked them to quantify the financial impact of product damage they incur each year. More often than not, they weren’t able to provide an accurate answer. These companies knew product damage impacted their bottom line, yet accepted it as a fact of life without considering the possibilities to reduce such damage.”

According to Boyd, well more than half of the North American market requires something other than a standard attachment, whether it’s a clamp that simply requires a custom opening range or a highly specialized attachment with an elaborate combination of hydraulic and mechanical functions.

In the past, an equipment owner may have been right to assume the process of developing a customized solution could be costly and complicated. As a result of this assumption, it’s become quite common to see operations that are using 30-year-old attachment designs. So while their operation and needs changed, their attachments often did not.

Customized solution development has benefited greatly from the integration of technology, Boyd says. The turnaround time for designing a custom attachment can be as little as 24 hours, as opposed to waiting weeks or months for a real-world prototype to prove the concept.

Technology integration combined with enhanced customer relationships are just a few of the ways attachment manufacturers are addressing the ever-increasing demands of materials handling customers. Today, however, “the materials handling market is in transformation as the level of sophistication is ratcheting up,” Boyd says. “Our customers’ mindsets are advancing into areas that break the boundaries of typical attachment design—solutions beyond simply providing steel and hydraulics. Clamp force control and distribution, wireless power and communication systems and passive operator assist systems are moving to become more and more common in materials handling operations throughout the world.”