Monitoring tools have taken shape for the purpose of transforming subjective sensations on equipment performance into objective comparative data. Every step can be improved again and again. This is exactly the reason why BKT has developed SPOTECH, an innovative device able to provide exact information on the equipment position traced by satellite. It can be programmed and tailored as to the application site volumes and type of equipment in use. 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 enable the creation of a real study on tire 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 analyzing the weight that is transported on the average and the distance in kilometers per hour. Basically, a higher TKPH index means that a tire 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 precious suggestions in order to correctly interpret the data and to intervene, if necessary, with corrective actions on the tires.
Matters are quite different as far as port applications are concerned. At a port yard, you never have repeated cycles. Hence, it has been a much more complex task finding a constant value to be measured. Here becomes essential the use of a GoPro cam installed on the equipment registering videos from the operator's prospective being synchronized 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. This type of information has enabled BKT to create almost a dozen of cases enabling to notice the critical issues of on logistic center compared to another and to compare them among each other.
“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,” Piero Torassa, BKT engineer states. – “The user is definitely interested in having such data at hand in order to objectively understand, which might be their improvement areas. From our point of view, SPOTECH is hence a splendid visit card, introducing us as a company that does well understand both its products and their applications.”
To put it in a nutshell: BKT actually offers a real system starting from technology that is however based on the corporate team's expertise and professionalism aiming at continuous improvement of the “equipment-tire” combination.
