Monitoring tools have been developed for the purpose of transforming subjective sensations on equipment performance into objective comparative data
However, every step can be improved. This is why BKT has developed SPOTECH, an innovative device able to provide exact information on the equipment position traced by satellite. The company said the objective is a kinematic motion analysis.
The system, indeed, comprises a triaxial accelerometer positioned on the equipment in order to record latitudinal, longitudinal, and vertical movements as well as the forces involved in addition to speed, cycle duration and other useful parameters for increasing the customer’s job efficiency in the earthmoving and port sector.
All information obtained by SPOTECH enables the creation of a real study on tyre usage, according to their effects and impacts on the piece of equipment it is fitted on. In the field of OTR, for which this device has been originally designed, equipment generally performs repeated cycles.
This enables to assess the TKPH value, i.e. a dumper’s strength by analysing the weight that is transported on the average and the distance in kilometres per hour. A higher TKPH index means that a tyre is not suitable for the application in use, whereas it is perfect if the result is lower.
The BKT experts can assist users by offering suggestions to correctly interpret the data and to intervene, if necessary, with corrective actions on the tyres. There are, however, differences in regard to port applications. At a port yard, there are never repeated cycles. Hence, it is a more complex task finding a constant value to be measured.
In this instance, the use of a GoPro camera becomes essential. It can be installed on the equipment registering videos from the operator’s prospective being synchronised with the data recorded by the device, and enquiring, for instance, how many containers are on the move every hour, the average speed per hour or the average distance travelled with or without load.
Piero Torassa, BKT engineer, said, “In this type of operation many things come to light on the field. In Germany, we have cooperated with some users, who have explicitly requested our analyses, since other companies offering this type of service, in the end, did not provide that kind of feedback customers really needed.”
“The user is definitely interested in having such data at hand in order to objectively understand, which might be their improvement areas,” he added.
