How Do You Define a Low, Medium and High Impact?

Impact sensor on a forklift will track and send notifications when a forklift incident occurs. But do you really want to know every impact that transpires on the facility floor? Probably not. There are 3 types of impacts that can occur: low impact, medium impact or high impact. We’re going to discuss the types of forklift impacts and what you can do with the information you collect.

What is an Impact Sensor?

An impact sensor on a forklift can be a stand-alone product or included within a forklift safety system. The purpose of an impact sensor on a forklift is to track the various impact levels (low, medium and high) based on defined settings. When an impact reaches a level of higher severity, a notification can be sent to one or more individuals.

G-Force

Each forklift impact is measured by G-Force. To understand the severity of an impact, a forklift impact at a 1G equals 22 MPH. What damage can be done at a 1G? If the impact is at a 4G simply take 22 x 4 and that will be 88 MPH. If a forklift hits an object at 4G is that enough to trigger a notification? Maybe or maybe not. Let’s discuss the potential impact on the event that may result in losses.

Impacts

There are 3 ways to classify an impact: low, medium and high. These categories make it easier to decide when you want a notification sent to you based on the severity of an impact. Let’s say for instance, the forklift driver makes a hard stop. Would you classify that as a low, medium or high impact? Most will agree that this will be a low-level impact. Is a hard stop enough to trigger a notification? Probably not.

What if the forklift hits a racking system and bends one of the vertical infrastructure steel pieces? Would you classify this as a low, medium or high impact? For argument’s sake, let’s classify this as a high impact. If your shelves are full with customer product and the forklift impacts the integrity of the racking system’s infrastructure, causing a weakening of the rack, then let’s say that’s a high impact. Is that enough to trigger a notification? Probably yes.

What if the forklift hits a pile of pallets and causes the pallets to move out of place, enough where the driver needs to stop the forklift, get out of the forklift and determine if any of the pallets have been damaged. Would you consider this to be a medium impact? Is a situation like this enough for a notification to be sent? Maybe.  

Setting the Limits

Every facility has its own characteristics as well as risk factors. In our pallet example, some may say this is enough of an impact that needs to trigger a notification. Others may think the opposite. And that’s fine. It’s up to you and what is best within your environment.

Within the S2 Digital Inspection with Impact Detection, you have the flexibility to set your limits to whatever you want. If you believe a 4G is a low-level impact and does not warrant a notification, perfect. Some may believe a 4G is a medium-level impact and should send a notification. You both are correct and both can set those limits in the Telemetry Dashboard.

Summary

Impact sensors on a forklift are critical to measuring the types of impacts that your facility experiences each day. It provides greater insights into your facility that you didn’t have before. Once you gain these insights, what are you going to do with it? If you’d like an article that discusses this topic, just let us know at sales@siera.ai.

Or if you are ready to get this feature along with the forklift digital inspection, contact us today at sales@siera.ai. It’s a great way to be OSHA compliant and get information on the activity in your facility.