materialhandlingupdate DOCK EQUIPMENT
Leakage can also occur underneath the dock leveler. Traditional
dock levelers are recessed into a pit.
If there’s any kind of gapping
between the leveler and the concrete
pit, heated and cooled air can escape
through the opening. Investing in
an under-leveler seal can help plug
this gap.
Open door policy?
When it comes to dock-related
energy loss, the problem isn’t always
with the equipment. Sometimes, it’s
with the people. Seals won’t do
much good if dock attendants inadvertently leave doors open or fail to
follow the proper procedure for
opening dock doors (thus leaving
doors open longer than necessary).
If you suspect operator error is a
factor in your operation, “
interlocking” or “sequencing” the dock operation can help. The use of interlocking equipment—devices that auto-
matically engage when another
piece of equipment is set in
motion—removes the risk of operator oversight. Mike Earle of inflatable seal maker Pentalift says his
company offers seals that can be
interlocked with the mechanism
that opens overhead doors so that
once a door is opened, the seal starts
inflating against the truck. This
eliminates the chance that someone
will forget to engage the seal.
Sequencing a dock operation is
another way to limit the amount of
time doors are kept open. With
sequencing, a control system or
panel automatically sets the order of
the dock door opening process. So,
for example, a dock attendant must
lock the trailer before raising the
dock door and then engaging the
dock leveler. The equipment will
not turn on until the previous step
has been completed.
In addition to interlocking and
sequencing, there’s always the software
route. A number of companies offer dock
management software that monitors load-
ing dock equipment. The software notifies
the user when a door has been left open
and then acknowledges any corrective
action taken, says Sprunger of 4Front.
Watts going down?
Opportunities to save energy at the loading
dock aren’t limited to plugging air leaks, to
be sure. Switching to more efficient—that
is, lower wattage—dock lighting can also go
a long way toward cutting utility bills.
Motor carrier Old Dominion Freight
Line, for example, installed T5 lights at its
freight handling facilities along with
motion sensors that turn on the lights
when motion is detected and ambient sensors that dim or raise lights depending on
how much natural light is available. It also
installed skylights to increase the amount
of natural light in the loading dock area.
The result has been a noticeable drop in
Old Dominion’s utility bills. The carrier has
seen a payback in anywhere from one to 12
months, depending on the number of
lighting fixtures in the facility, says Howard
Cornelison, the company’s director of purchasing and real estate.
Another way to take a bite out of utility
costs is to install high-volume, low-speed
fans in the dock vestibule. In cold weather,
these fans force hot air down from the ceiling; in hot weather, they promote air circulation and have a slight cooling effect.
Energy audit
If that seems like a lot of information to
digest, help is available. Many dock equipment companies, including Rite-Hite and
4Front, offer free energy audits to identify
areas of vulnerability and recommend
solutions.
The return on investment for this type of
equipment is typically pretty fast, according
to the vendors. So once you’ve decided on a
solution, it’s usually fairly easy to get upper
management to sign off on it, they say.
“In our analysis, we find the payback in
Northern climates [is] in many cases a year
or less,” says Swietlik of Rite-Hite.
“Considering that this equipment can run
anywhere from $1,500 to $2,500,” he adds,
“that’s a fair amount of energy saved.”
