The safe use of tipping vehicles has long been a concern in the bulk marketplace, particularly in the case of tipping trailers. Their hazards are many, but probably the most significant and costly is the risk of a tipper overturning.
Several factors can contribute to a tipper overturning but the most significant of these is tipping on an incline or uneven ground, often combined with the load being unevenly distributed or sticking. In actual fact, an articulated tipper can become unstable and overturn when tipping on a cross slope as low as 5 degrees.
Last year, in association with Cemex, VPG Onboard Weighing developed an enhancement to it’s BulkWeigh systems to help make tipping trailers much safer to use. Using the trailer’s on-board weighing equipment they created a solution to measure load distribution laterally across the trailer to detect uneven loading and also any incline. Added to this, was a body-mounted inclinometer to monitor the angle of the trailer body whilst tipping.
The system, tested at QuinetiQ in Chertsey UK, measures the lateral angle of the trailer to allow tipping to start and then measures and monitors the incline of the body during the tipping process. If the set point of 4 degrees (side to side) is exceeded an alarm will sound and the ram will be prevented from lifting any further. The body can still be safely lowered and any uneven load distribution or trailer placement can be safely remedied. In addition, load cells measure any shift in the centre of gravity of the load and stop the ram from lifting if the trailer’s load moves 40% or more across the trailer’s axle width. The lifting ram can be lowered safely but is prevented from being raised again until the side to side angle is below 4 degrees and any shift in the trailer’s centre of gravity is less than 40% across its axles.
VPG Onboard Weighing is recognized as a leader in the design, manufacture and servicing of on-board weighing systems for almost any wheeled commercial vehicle; ranging from vans and light commercials to heavy trucks and shovel loaders. It was established 1985 and is UK’s longest-established on-board weighing company.
VPG Onboard Weighing, a brand of Vishay Precision Group, Inc. (VPG), is perhaps most recently best known for its robust and innovative overload protection systems, TruckWeigh® and VanWeigh®. These fully patented systems are light in weight, and allow virtually any vehicle to be monitored, in terms of its GVW and individual axle loads to ensure that vehicle loads can be optimized without the danger of being overloaded. The result of this technology helps to avoid excessive wear and tear and resulting damage to the vehicle, as well as avoiding the risk of attracting the wrath of the DVSA, for whom overloading is one of the key focus areas and a primary cause of potential OCRS issues for operators.
