Opinion ID: 2080821
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Product:

Text: Dockboards are used to bridge the gap between a loading dock and a carrier bed. Personnel and various types of forklift trucks then maneuver across the board to load or unload the carrier. Ninety percent of all dockboards are portable plates that are manually placed over the gap. The other ten percent are either mechanical or hydraulic operations. Mechanical dockboards are operated by raising the ramp component and extending a hinged lip onto the carrier bed. They are installed over a recessed pit, giving the dockboard a capability of accommodating carrier beds either above or below the dock level. When not in use, the lip returns to a pendant position and the ramp is supported at dock level by steel legs underneath the ramp at each side. When in use, a dockboard is supported on one side solely by the carrier bed. Thus, a major hazard at loading docks is that the carrier may become separated from the lip extension, leaving the dockboard without support on one side, perhaps with equipment and/or personnel on the dockboard at the time. This can occur either (1) if the semi truck pulls or rolls away with a load on the ramp or (2) if the angle of the lip is too steep for a forklift truck to ascend, in which case the forklift's drive wheels, upon hitting the lip, effectively push the carrier away from the dock. In addressing the first hazard, Kelley's competitors universally employ a fixed safety leg, which prevents the dockboard from falling below dock level should the semi truck pull away. Kelley claims, however, that such a system in itself exacerbates the second hazard of the forklift pushing away the carrier. It claims that truck deflection from the weight of the load and forklift may cause the lip to drop below ramp level, while the fixed leg prevents the ramp from following the lip. The forklift driver either will not notice the deflection and resultant steep lip angle or will not bother to stop and manually adjust the legs. Kelley addressed the hazard associated with truck deflection by its patented cross-traffic legs. Upon raising the ramp, the lip automatically flips up. The lip flip in turn cams the safety leg into a retracted position. In this way the ramp and lip can float together up and down with the deflection of the carrier bed, thus preventing the creation of an angle dangerous to forklift operation. Without a load on the dock, the ramp would raise by its own upward bias, the lip would drop, and the cam would return the legs to their fixed position for support at dock level. The cross-traffic leg, however, left the first hazard unaddressed. If the carrier pulled or rolled away while a heavy load was on the dock, there would not be time for the lip to drop and cam the safety legs into position, and thus the dockboard would fall to its lowest position. To prevent this occurrence, Kelley's engineers developed a panic stop. This patented device is a notched post which senses the ramp's speed of descent and can catch a fall within 3 inches. Thus, Kelley's two patented devices corrected both hazards when used in combination, while its competitors addressed only one hazard. Kelley's dockboards are priced above its competitors' models. In order to compete, Kelley offered both the fixed-leg safety system and the cross-traffic leg system, for which it offered a panic stop as a $200 option. In 1970, Kelley developed Model 6280, which is a contractors' dockboard. It was self-forming in that it came equipped with a steel pan around which concrete for the dock was poured, thereby saving time and installation costs. It had a smaller recessed pit than the other mechanical model, Model 6081. Because of this, use of the panic stop in Model 6280 would require additional installation steps and would increase the per-unit price by several hundred dollars, to almost equal the price of the 6081, a larger and higher-capacity board. Thus the 6280 was not marketed with a panic stop, but it did have retractable cross-traffic legs. In 1971, the contractor for Safelite's Eagan warehouse, Rauenhorst, specified the Model 6081 with panic stops for its loading docks. To meet anticipated competitive bids, Pugleasa, Kelley's distributor, requested and received permission to submit alternative bids. Pugeasa's submitted bid on the 6280 contractors' boards, without panic stops, was eventually accepted to save time and costs in construction.