Rubber bumpers: High protection, fast wear

Pure rubber bumpers are the classic. They allow trucks to dock gently and protect the building quite efficiently (see lines 1 and 5). The “price” for this: Due to the material used and the structure, they unfortunately wear out very quickly.

In addition, there are clear deficits in dismantling. The low purchase price at first glance is quickly put into perspective, especially for ramps with higher traffic volumes. This is because the costs of frequent repair work and regular replacement are very significant. This is precisely why many users quickly switch to rubber bumpers with a steel front plate.

Rubber bumper with prefixed steel plate and bumper made of high-strength plastic: Longer service life at the price of a lower protective function

When a steel front plate is used, the service life of the ramp bumper improves considerably. At the same time, however, the protective function deteriorates dramatically (lines 2 and 4). In a sense, the longer service life is bought by a lower protective function. This significant loss of protection inevitably results in higher maintenance and repair costs for the building, loading ramp and truck.

Bumpers made of high-strength plastic show the same picture (line 6).

Steel bumpers: higher compliance, but lower deformability
Steel bumpers or spring steel bumpers give the robust steel plate more resilience to brake the truck more softly (lines 7 and 8). However, they do not achieve the deformability of the rubber bumpers.

Steel rubber bumper with lamella construction
Only the steel-rubber bumper with lamella construction combines the high durability of the steel plate front with the compliance of a rubber bumper (line 3). Further, it showed a force plateau over 2/3 of the way in the tests, which stands for an even smoother deceleration over a relatively long distance.