Simulators are regarded as an essential training tool in some industry sectors, and are becoming more popular in the ports industry as employers seek to impart driving skills to trainee operators in a safe ‘virtual’ environment.

Training courses, with or without simulators, are often run by industry associations, in order to spread the cost, but one leading materials handler in Italy, La Cisa, which specialises in industrial handling and logistics services, mainly  in the iron and steel and precast sectors, has taken the bull by the horns and introduced a purpose-built simulator. 

Available for its own and third-party heavy lift truck drivers, the simulator is located at its POINT (technological innovation pole) training school in Bergamo, situated close to the Tenaris Dalmine steel plant. 

Tenaris Dalmine is a leading global supplier of tubes and cylinders for the energy industry and other industrial sectors, and is a key client for La Cisa. Other steel industry customers include Marcegaglia and ABS Acciaierie Bertoli 
Safau (Danieli), and, as such, La Cisa currently operates in 14 mills, plants and port environments, in Ravenna, Piombino, Trieste, Livorno, Porto Marghera and San Giorgio di Nogaro. 

In total, La Cisa handles around 20 Mtpa of materials. Its equipment fleet comprises around 350 terminal tractors and 300 industrial trailers and a large number of FLTs and reach stackers ranging from 2t to 52t. It operates  equipment from a number of suppliers, including Terberg, Mafi, Kalmar, Hyster, OTO and CVS. Its core business (ca.80% of activity) in the steel industry generated a turnover of €24M in 2015, with the forecast for 2016 being €28M.

Making a POINT

Introducing the simulator at the POINT driving academy, Paolo Provenzi, coowner (with his brother Roberto) and managing director of La Cisa, says that the “market has always seen us as innovators, and this new service enhances
our progressive image still further”. The academy was opened last year, with the aim of raising the quality and efficiency of services, providing highly specialised courses in compliance with industry norms and standards.

The simulator and associated software and tracking represent an investment of €300,000 and result from a collaborative effort between La Cisa and outside experts in various fields at Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, a  university located in Pisa. The simulator forms part of an overall training programme that also involves ‘class work’ covering the handling characteristics and safe load limits of different equipment types, and real driving with trained instructors. 

All directions

The simulator cabin is a full-sized big lift truck cabin – to be precise a Hyster 16t-48t FLT cabin, but a big truck’s functions are the same irrespective of supplier. The cabin is positioned on an electro-mechanical platform derived from the aerospace industry. This moves in all directions to transmit real driving ‘sensations’. Motion tracking and high resolution 3D visualisation are designed to immerse the trainee in ‘real life’ driving experiences using a wide range of heavy FLT attachments.

“We designed the simulator to reflect as closely as possible client demands, and we released it a few months ago,” continues Paolo Provenzi. So far, 80 La Cisa employees have trained on the simulator, and the service is now being  offered to third parties, either for their own equipment or equipment they lease or hire from La Cisa. Certainly, there is widespread interest. Dalmine’s global HR people, for example, want one for each plant, which may lead to a “light version”.

“The simulator reproduces faithfully the commands of a real FLT, while the visualisation of the images is entrusted to high definition projectors, providing a full 360-degree surround,” says Fabio Roncalli, one of the trainers at POINT. 
In all, there are three full-time La Cisa trainers and seven part-time outside teachers at the academy. 

The sensation of realism and the driving precision are realised through a motion tracking system that tracks the movement of the head (via a helmet equipped with sensors) and body of the driver, improving his perception of the dimensions around the machine in all directions, while sounds recorded from actual working environments are played. 

The platform is equipped with PLCcontrolled electric pistons and can reproduce all real movements of a heavy FLT – accelerations, braking, swerving and rolls. Roncalli adds that if the trainee goes outside the safety limits, the 
platform will simulate a turnover (on the non-stairwell side) or forward dump.  Collisions with fixed objects or other pieces of equipment can also be simulated. The software can replicate all outside ambient conditions and different traffic scenarios, such as a blocked route, unexpected machine breakdowns and events such as a tyre blowout.

Getting attached

Furthermore, the trainees get to  understand how to work machineswith different attachments – for example, electromagnetic plates for steel bars or slabs, tube blocker holders for steel tubes, plain forks for slabs on stillages, 
spreaders for containers (reach stacker software module), Chooks for steel coils (fixed for FLT, rotating for reach stackers), various types of rams for steel or wire coils, end-on attachments for empty containers, etc. This reflects the full gamut of La Cisa’s lifting and handling services. 

A number of attachments used by La Cisa are of its own design. In 2007, it set up a subsidiary company in Ravenna, LC Project Srl, to design and engineer attachments tailored to specific customer requirements. La Cisa hires out equipment, and provides maintenance and service support, or it can operate a full service by supplying the drivers as well (‘hot hire’).

“Training is an integral part of our hire service, and our courses span everything from machine operation to machine inspection using non-invasive magnetoscopic techniques,” says Paolo Provenzi. “We tailor courses for expert operators, as well as beginners. The courses help reduce accidents, and our customers know that, through the courses, they have taken all possible measures to reduce the risk to their employees or bystanders.”

Telemetry

While training is vital for efficient and safe working, OEMs are turning more and more to real-time monitoring systems, so that their customers can have a better understanding of driver behaviour. Konecranes, for example, offers its Truconnect system in three modules, providing increasing levels of information and signals communication, to assist preventative maintenance, reduce downtimes and running costs and help improve productivity (WorldCargo News, May 2016, p62).

Similarly, Hyster Tracker is designed to provide accurate cost calculation with the ability to track maintenance as well as measure operator and machine productivity online. Features include fault code monitoring and impact sensing, while GPS tracking, hour meters and truck use reporting can provide information to help improve productivity and processes, including yard layouts. It can also restrict access and control daily checks. Hyster Tracker can be factoryfitted to almost any truck in the Hyster range or retrofitted to existing units. Other types and brands of equipment used in ports and terminals can also be fitted with Hyster Tracker, such as straddle carriers.

Liebherr, too, is extending its product range of IT tools and services with a smartApp version of its LiDAT data system. LiDAT uses big data analytics to help customers optimise the performance of their handling equipment. With LiDAT smartApp, customers can analyse crane/lift truck operating and performance data, and get answers almost immediately. The data also help to detect bottlenecks. All relevant data/variables are displayed as KPIs on any device (PC, tablet, smartphone, etc). The results can be fed back to the machine or driver.

Features include status reports and fleet management: The dashboard can be customised by defining important KPIs, in accordance with customer-specific tasks. With the detailed view of variables over time, dependencies and distribution, LiDAT smartApp adds analytical power, enabling in-depth analysis and enhanced understanding of operations.

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This complete item is approximately 2000 words in length, and appeared in the September 2016 issue of WorldCargo News, on page 49. To access this issue download the PDF here.