Above: SafeLoad Assist offers Baumann sideloader operators added safety and a confidence boost.
November, 2024: “Safety is becoming a bigger component for relationships with employees, whether they are union or nonunion. Safety is the headline,” notes Rob Alling, president and CEO of Baumann USA. He draws upon more than 40 years of experience in the material handling sector and countless meetings with customers, including fabricators and metal service centers. This input has helped to shape the next generation of Baumann heavy-duty sideloaders, now equipped with SafeLoad Assist.
Using sensors in the truck chassis and software in the cabin, SafeLoad Assist calculates the load center on the sideloader for enhanced safety over traditional sideloading forklifts. Use of a sideloader when handling long loads also enables greater operator confidence, efficiency, versatility and productivity versus forklifts and overhead cranes. Already available in Europe, SafeLoad Assist will be available to customers in North America before the end of the year.
WEIGHT GAINS
When service centers expand their offerings to include fabrication, and as fabricators increase the size of their projects, it is an opportune time to review one’s method of handling these large, heavy and often asymmetrical loads. Alling points out that a decade ago, fabricating an object weighing 4 tons was common. Now he sees customers fabricating projects well over 10 tons.
“Today’s customers have some unusual shapes being fabricated. The load centers for these shapes may not be known to the guy driving the lift truck. He may know the weight. But he may not realize that the load center has changed from 24 in.; it’s now out at 60 in.,” explains Alling. And, engineers who design such fabrications may not automatically think to advise the forklift driver where the load center of a given component is located.
Without a clearly defined load center, there is the potential for damage to occur to the material or injury to the operator or other personnel. “So, safety is more of a moving target in the fabrication world, and that’s why SafeLoad Assist is a game changer,” says Alling.
CALCULATING FACTORS
SafeLoad Assist automatically takes into account a number of factors that can impact safe working load limits and influence the actual load center. These include the truck’s counterweight, the type of mast, weight and deration effect on the truck, tire pressure, ground conditions, inclination and the height and reach at which the load is held. In calculating load capacities of its trucks, Baumann also considers the lifting height and outreach of the mast, frame tilt, tilting carriages, pantographs and many additional factors. Baumann sideloaders are normally rated at 24-in. or 27-in. load centers for lower capacity units, but custom load center ratings can be calculated and tested. “This is especially important when dealing with very heavy loads or extended load centers,” notes Alling.
SafeLoad Assist automatically calculates load center and excessive weight.
Baumann sideloaders equipped with SafeLoad Assist use sensors in the chassis to monitor the forces acting on the front and rear axles. Those forces are processed by software that then calculates the stability of the side-loader in relation to these forces. In essence, SafeLoad Assist aids the operator in addressing load center or excessive weight, thereby providing a more accurate and reliable guide to the overall safe operation. A computer monitor in the cabin shows the operator the calculated safety levels relative to the truck’s stability limits.
The development team at Baumann has been working on SafeLoad Assist for several years. “Riccardo Bove is the head engineer and general manager of Baumann. His strength is that when he builds a solution, it’s generally very robust and as simple as possible,” notes Alling.
Bove’s design theory is front-and-center on Baumann sideloaders with easy-to-read controls, a comfortable cabin and rugged frame. SafeLoad Assist was recognized as the Safety Product of the Year by the UK Materials Handling Association.
“Reliability is the underlying mantra for everything that Baumann builds,” assures Alling, which is especially important among customers running a sideloader six to eight hours a shift and up to three shifts a day. “Baumann has built it strong enough to get the job done, especially in the heavy-duty environment of a fabricator or service center,” says Alling.
“Our drivetrains are overbuilt, our tires are oversized and our masts [constructed in house] are designed specifically for handling long loads. These features add confidence that the sideloader can lift its rated load safely and easily hour after hour, day after day, year after year.”
SMALLER SPACES
Increasing productivity through efficient material handling is becoming an important business metric for service centers with outdoor storage. Sideloaders are a good solution. “It’s time to rearrange the yard,” quips Alling. Historically, a forklift would be used to navigate the rough terrain of a lay-down yard with a 40-ft .-wide load of pipe dangling down the center of a 50-ft.-wide travel aisle. When a company uses a sideloader, the load is safely carried over the body of the truck. Baumann sideloaders are equipped with tires up to 33-inch diameters for outdoor terrain. The aisle need only be a few feet wider than the sideloader itself, instead of the length of the stock.
“You can increase your yard storage by up to 50 percent quite easily and still have full selectivity,” states Alling. “It’s one thing to put the pipe all in a pile. You can get a lot in that way. But if you need selectivity and the pipe you need is in the middle, and you aren’t using an efficient yard layout with a sideloader, then someone’s job becomes digging for that pipe all morning,” Alling adds.
Aisles need only be a few feet wider than the sideloader, instead of the length of the stock, to help optimize yard storage.
NO SHIFTING
Baumann sideloaders are available in electric and diesel platforms with load capacity ranging from 6,600 lbs. to 110,000 lbs., depending on the model. Electric models offer lead-acid or lithium-based batteries. Manufactured by Baumann, “our masts offer good lateral stability you won’t find in other sideloaders,” Alling says. “This stability and the large load-bed surface adds to increased confidence for the operator that the load won’t be shifting in transport.” Other safety features include backup alarms, cameras and blue lights for indoor usage.
“Our sideloaders are designed for operators who are running the equipment over a full shift, taking only a few breaks, like lunch,” reports Alling.
Creature comforts like heating, air conditioning and strategic vent placement play a role in selection of a Baumann over the competition. “I find when a customer is used to running the truck several hours at a time and they come and drive one of ours, you can just see it in their face. It’s like, seriously, I could be driving this?” shares Alling.
SUPPORT AND SERVICE
Baumann sideloaders equipped with SafeLoad Assist are available for test demonstration at select dealers across North America. Based in Cavaion, Italy, Baumann supports North American dealers and customers with online and phone support as well as overnight availability of replacement parts, shipped from Brookville, Ohio. The company strives for 90 percent overnight delivery. “In the past few months, we’ve been at 100 percent same-day shipment,” says Alling.
In the event of total equipment breakdown, Baumann USA can ship a rental sideloader. “We have the largest fleet of rental sideloaders in North America,” comments Alling. He says the company culture is also important. “When you visit the factory in Italy, you can see that everyone has a singular purpose: to put out the best equipment that can be built,” explains Alling. That passion is lifting not just the product, but the safety, productivity and confidence of users worldwide.
Baumann USA, 855/334-2909, baumannusa.com.
