A dock leveler is a piece of machinery that builds a bridge between a building and a transport vehicle and is attached to the dock face or recessed into a pit at a loading dock entrance. It helps prevent damage to goods that have traveled for hours over land.
They also help reduce energy loss, especially in refrigerated warehouses and distribution centers. This is because they can rise vertically, creating an effective seal.
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Safety
The loading dock is busy, with many people working in the area simultaneously. This can cause accidents. Keeping your facility safe and running smoothly requires clear warehouse dock safety procedures. This involves maintaining the shipping and receiving area clean of obstacles while operations occur and restricting the number of individuals to one spotter and one operator.
Keeping your dock levelers and edge in good condition is essential for safety. If these pieces of equipment degrade, they can stop operations completely, causing your company to lose thousands of dollars in supplies and possibly customer orders.
Several ways to improve warehouse dock safety include using traditional wheel chocks to keep trucks from moving while loaded or unloaded and installing mirrors to help truck drivers back into docks safely. These accessories can prevent injuries from collisions and damage to cargo. They can also lessen the possibility of a truck damaging the dock leveler or the trailer by driving off it.
Efficiency
Dock levelers Hesperia CA provide a more efficient alternative to a dock board and eliminate the need for pits. They also have a lip that stands up, preventing vehicles from rolling off the deck during loading operations. They can help prevent forklift tire wear and costly section damage. They can also prevent excessive personnel fatigue and injury. They’re available in various capacities to meet the requirements of most facilities.
Air-powered levelers use an airbag system to raise and lower the ramp. They require an external power interface but offer reduced maintenance and operating costs compared to mechanical levelers.
Dock levelers can also be installed outside a facility, allowing dock doors to close directly onto the building floor rather than over a steel dock plate.
Durability
A dock leveler’s durability is critical because downtime can bring a supply chain to a stop. This revenue loss can cost hundreds of dollars, especially if temperature-controlled items are involved. It can also result in significant bodily harm to employees, so it is essential to maintain these vital pieces of equipment regularly.
Unlike portable dock plates, which can be easily moved to accommodate new loads or changing needs, dock levelers are a permanent investment. They can withstand the full gross vehicle weight (GVW) of trucks and trailers while providing safe access to both sides of the load.
A patented safety barrier lip in the stored position prevents forklifts from rolling off the dock leveler and into the trailer. It can also resist the impact of a 10,000 lb forklift moving at four mph while fully laden. The dock leveler’s deck and lip cylinders are engineered for maximum strength and long service life, offering easy push-button and quiet, dependable operation.
Cost
Dock levelers are an excellent investment for warehouses that must bridge the gap between incoming trucks and their loading zones. They help prevent warehouse accidents and increase productivity by making transferring goods between the two spaces easier.
Unlike dock plates, dock levelers are permanent pieces of equipment and can accommodate heavier loads than light-duty pallet jacks or panel trucks. They also provide better environmental control in refrigerated warehouses.
Several types of dock levelers are on the market, but most are low-cost solutions for medium to heavy ramp load applications. Mechanical pit levelers sit in front of the dock face or lagged to concrete and are activated by a pull chain system that releases the main lift springs and raises the platform/lip to form a bridge.
Electric dock levelers operate similarly, except they extend the lip using an electric hydraulic operation. These units allow the dock door to close directly on the building floor, creating thermal efficiencies of up to $2,500/yr per dock position. Exterior dock levelers can be bolted onto a facility in less than a day without carving up internal floor space or causing disruptions to internal operations.
