News

Sweet Home Chicago - March 2011

Upon return from our trip to Chicago, the home of the ProMat Material Handling Expo, we find ourselves with renewed excitement and possibilities about existing and potential customers. We also saw many opportunities to bring on new vendors that will help our manufacturing process and supply. Heck, we even got to play a little golf over at the Cascade Corporation booth.

If you attended the show, you may have seen our Turret Master attachment in the Clark Material Handling booth. The truck and turret integration generated interest from a variety of people interested in narrow aisle storage and retrieval.

We were also guests at a couple of after hours' hospitality events that allowed us to put faces with names we've built relationships with over the phone the last few years. These events were priceless as far as networking is concerned.

Thank you to all of the business friends and acquaintances who invited us in to your booths and made us feel like family. With all the excitement generated from the show this year, we plan on being an exhibiting part of the MODEX 2012 show that will be held in Atlanta. Next year is the first year for that event and should be another great opportunity to network and build our customer and vendor base.

We're Helping Alabama Stay Green - January 2011

Superior Engineering, Inc. recently installed our Turret Master attachment on a Linde 8000-pound, 80 volt, electric pneumatic counterbalance truck. This is the first time the Turret Master has been installed on an electric/pneumatic truck and our efforts met with great success. The truck was tested at 3000 pounds, up to a 135" lift height, and tested phenomenally. This machine has been acquired by Alabama Power and Light as part of their "green" initiative for a healthier environment; through years of research, development, operation upgrades and marketing, Alabama Power and Light has consistently shown its commitment to make an all electric fleet a reality. Superior Engineering is proud to have our Turret Master attachment help APL achieve another milestone in honoring their green commitment.

Linde Engineering worked closely with us during the design and testing of this unit, visiting our facilities after the Turret Master installation and preparing the programmable, computer-controlled proportional hydraulics. Linde engineers also witnessed the ANSI B56 tilt table test of the modified unit. Bill Sapp, from Springer Equipment in Birmingham, Alabama, made the deal with APL for the Turret Master-modified Linde truck; we appreciate Bill's confidence in our product and his efforts and expertise in putting this all together.

If you are a dealer interested in the Linde/Turret Master combo, you can contact Lee Jessup at the Linde factory to get a quote or, if you have general questions regarding the Turret Master attachment, call Matt Lusk or Scott McGonigle at Superior Engineering, at 864-226-8799, to discuss your project or get more information.

Welcome to Avinash Kola - October 2010

We are proud to welcome Avinash Kola to our engineering team. Avinash recently earned his Masters Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Clemson University. He earned his Bachelors degree from VIT University in Vellore, India. Avinash will be responsible for the design and development of new projects that come in to Superior Engineering for manufacturing.

Avinash has previous engineering experience as a Graduate Research Assistant, a Teaching Assistant, Project Assistant, Graduate Advisor and Design Coach at Clemson University.

Modifications Abound for Invista - July 2010

Superior Engineering designed and built a mast for Invista in Spartanburg, SC ,and perrormed an extensive overhead guard and seating modification. The design required 10,000 pounds capacity at 27" load center, a lowered height of 54" and a maximum lift height of 14", fitting the standard mounting on a 10,000 pound forklift, and locking out the tilt. The forks were 3" thick x 6" wide, with no taper. The forks had square locking nubs to secure the load while traveling.

The maximum height of the overhead guard was to be no taller than 83". This required that the overhead guard be removed, cut down, reassembled, re-fabricated to spec, and tested according to ANSI compliance guidelines. We knew going in that this would result in a headroom issue, which required a redesign and remanufacturing of the entire seating mount and battery compartment cover. When the truck was delivered, the customer was so pleased they decided to place an order for another right away.

Gen3 Turret Master Introduction - January 2010

Superior Engineering is proud to announce our new Gen3 Turret Master Attachment. We have taken the second-generation design that made this unit great, added a few improvements, and now our versatile, narrow aisle attachment is more functional than ever.

The Gen3 design allows us to manufacture the unit more efficiently, which has decreased our need for extended lead times by a full week.

Anyone who has experience with our earlier Turret Master attachments will tell you how reliable and maintenance-friendly they are. This Gen3 design change has made the Turret Master even more reliable than it already was, and has made it even more maintenance and service friendly. Not much has changed as far as operation goes, but the increased visibility is a huge plus.The Turret Master still operates using two auxiliary functions: one for the compound side-shift and traverse of the main frame, and one for the pivoting of the carriage and forks.

For more information, click here to be directed to the Turret Master Page.

November 2009

Liftone in Greenville, South Carolina, just placed two Caterpillar Trucks with Superior Engineering Turret Master attachments on them into the Baldor manufacturing facility in Belton. The customer had been looking for an alternative to the existing narrow aisle units they had previously purchased. John Henderson, the salesman for Liftone, was very instrumental in the coordination of the sale to Baldor. The unit also included a fork positioner to accommodate the various pallet and fork pocket arrangements that the operator often encounters. A big thank you goes out to Liftone Inc., John Henderson, and the guys over at Baldor for the decision made to add us to their fleet.

Helping CVS Serve You Better and Faster - June 2009

Through Hyster National Accounts, we are helping CVS Pharmacy make their warehousing and distribution even better. We recently placed 3 Turrets on Hyster trucks in the Indianapolis CVS distribution facility. This will help decrease the time the operator needs to pull stock from the warehouse and get the shipment out the door to awaiting CVS pharmacies near you. Next time you're in a CVS Pharmacy, think about how Superior Engineering is helping to increase the speed with which your drugs and merchandise are delivered!

Superior and Raymond Develop Man Down Turret - January 2009

We are happy to announce a great opportunity for Raymond dealers! The Raymond Corporation has long been famous for their man up turrets; now, by working with Superior Engineering, they are able to offer a man down turret as well.

The sales and engineering teams at Superior and Raymond have worked very hard together to develop a man down turret option for the Raymond counterbalance truck. This new option is a marriage of the Raymond lift truck and the Superior Engineering mast and Turret Master attachments. Dealers interested in a man down turret can contact the Raymond factory and receive a complete package quote. There is no middleman, because the quoted option comes directly from the factory.

We look forward to working with Raymond and their dealers in the months ahead.

AGV Mast Design - May 2007

An Automatic Guided Vehicle manufacturer presented Superior Engineering, Inc. with a design request for a three-stage mast and turret that would have a maximum fork height of thirty-five feet. The turret would need to have 180 degrees of rotation to store and retrieve from either side of the aisle, while maintaining a very low deflection result when fully loaded and offset. The turret would need to be electrically actuated while traversing and pivoting. The turret also required fork tilt, but the fork tilt would be hydraulically, not electrically, actuated.

After months of design and engineering collaboration between Superior and the AGV manufacturer, the project was designed, fabricated, manufactured, assembled and tested. The mast and turret combination performed well above and beyond the expectations of the AGV manufacturer and customer.

This mast has been further modified and improved and is currently being manufactured by Lift Technologies and sold exclusively through Superior Engineering, Inc.