Dock Levellers

ARMO INTRODUCTION DOCK LEVELLERS UNIT Born in 1972 and leader in the logistic and loading bays, Armo is nowadays the most vanguard industry in the dock leveller field because we have made investments in technology, in quality and in production efficiency. Our plants, totally robotized, produce a dock leveller every 15 minutes by assuring constant and total quality whilst respecting the Security and Surroundings Regulations. Armo develops, day after day, its productive quality, the efficiency of the industrial planning and the skill of its staff. Today Armo has an international tested vocation,...

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Armo is able to supply quick and satisfying answers for all problems that our customers may encounter; it could be a request of spare parts easily to meet thanks to our well-supplied warehouse or in case of request of special lifting tables, realized according to the customers’ requests. 1.1 Made in Italy Our dock leveller are totally designed and manufactured in our factories, in the district of Turin. We take your attention to our factory in None, realized in collaboration with ABB Flexible Automation, which is the most vanguard worldwide structure in the carpentry field...

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.3 Safety and improvement of the working place Working rules and D.L. 81/08 dictate strict regulations concerning the safety of the working place. Using a robot in our main working areas, bending, welding and milling machines, permits to solve all sort of problems, related to these important aspects. Working in the best possible conditions, is surely an advantage; not only for worker’s health, but also for the quality of the job made. This is independent from the strict rules which cover health and working surroundings. Armo is a modern company able to combine the workers...

CHAPTER 2 SAFETY RULES 2.1 Regulations to be applied to dock levellers Every dock leveller will have to strictly follow the 98/37/CE of June 22nd 1998, the EN 292/1 and EN 292/2 Machinery Safety: general technical principles for design regulation, and the EN 1398 European Regulation of type C. In the first part of the EN 1398, it’s said that all national rules conflicting with it have to be withdraw within February 1998, and the EN 1398 have to be applied without making any modification. Laws cannot be discussed, but only applied. 2.2 Conformity declaration Our dock leveller is a mono-block structure;...

CHAPTER 3 MAIN REQUIREMENTS 3.1 Dock leveller purpose (EN 1398 – 3.1) The dock leveller is a static or mobile equipment, which is used to fill the distance between a loading dock or similar loading areas and the loading surface of a vehicle that can be at different levels. The dock leveller is not designed to lift or lower goods. The operation is therefore not intended to lift the load, but only to modify the position of the dock leveller, without any load. The dock leveller is not suitable to carry loads if it is not perfectly resting in a balanced position on the vehicle surface. 3.2 Tripping...

CHAPTER 4 MAIN REQUIREMENTS 4.1 Visibility of raised or lowered position of dock leveller The visible lateral components of dock levellers, in raised or lowered position, are clearly marked with yellow/black stripes. 4.2 Support device for maintenance intervention Dock levellers are fitted with a mechanical device which, when operated, will support the leveller at its maintenance position without load. This device is part of the dock leveller and it is not possible for it to be unintentionally disengaged. 4.3 Crushing and shearing risks Crushing and shearing hazards between pit edges and dock...

CHAPTER 4 MAIN REQUIREMENTS 4.4 Automatic safety device Armo dock levellers are provided with an emergency stop device, located directly in the raising cylinder, which, if the loading vehicle drives away before the dock leveller has returned to its resting position, reduces the lowering speed to not more than 0.05 m/s. The EN 1398 (par. 5.4.1), says that all parts subject to the overloading due to automatic security device must be designed to resist to this overloading pressure. In our dock levellers, the cylinder is designed to stand a high pressure. The operation of the security valve with...

CHAPTER 5 GENERAL FEATURES 5.1 Power pack Power pack is with outside motor, placed under the frame in a frontal position, for an easy access in case of maintenance. Our valve group, as told previously, permits, in case of electrical fault, to finish the loading phases in total safety and bring back the leveller in its rest position: you just have to close the lip manually, unplugging the flexible hose; afterward you can bring the dock leveller in its original position, by positioning a weight of about 600 kg. on the frame. Every dock levellers has its own power pack. 5.2 Electric box Electric...

CHAPTER 5 GENERAL FEATURES 5.4 Lip A robotized milling machine automatically works our dock leveller lip. The milling process includes the bevelling along the entire length of the lip and the breaking of the milled corners. This avoids any damages to forklift wheels during loading operations. The lip is provided folded to perfectly lay to the truck body. If you need to load trucks with different width, it’s possible to use a 3-sector lip: a central sector and two lateral ones that are automatically connected by a sphere device. It’s possible to pull the lateral sectors down when you don’t make...

CHAPTER 5 GENERAL FEATURES According to the regulation of reference, the dock leveller working slope cannot overtake the 12,5% of its length ( floorboard with lip), equal to a slope angle of ± 7˚.  Negative slope: The negative slope is due to stop gear changes. If you are in loading conditions in which the dock leveller is completely in negative slope and against the vehicle’s floor, make sure that that in the loading phase the floor itself won’t reduce even more its height from the ground, since the dock leveller couldn’t balance the gap and, under the pressure due to the vehicle’s passage,...