Straight was incorporated as Straight Engineering Company (SEC) in 1953 in Adel, Iowa, USA. The manufacturing plant is still in Adel and owned by SEC, while trading since 1994 has been done under Straight International Corporation (SIC).
History of the Development of Straight Unloaders
Straight Engineering Company (SEC) incorporated in 1953 to design, market and manufacture Rail Car Unloaders. In 1959, the product line was expanded to include Hydraulic Truck Unloaders. Scales were developed for both types of Unloaders in the 1960's. More than 500 unloaders have been built at the Adel plant to date.
Straight Unloaders have always had unique patented design features which have served the industry well. Most prominent has been the use of one cylinder rigidly mounted and centrally located to provide the necessary tilting forces.
Straight's first application was on the Boxcar Unloader developed in the early 1950's. One cylinder side tilted and end tilted a box car. The concept was simple but the cylinder had to carry both thrust and moment type loads. By the mid 1960's, Straight had captured the market in the U.S. grain industry by offering Car Unloaders that could tilt, weigh and vibrate a car during unloading.
The standard Straight Truck Unloader was a natural outgrowth of the car unloading experience. By 1970, Straight had a strong position in the truck unloading market in the U.S. grain industry. Straight's manufacturing costs were higher than those of competitors who used telescoping cylinders with "A" frames to the side of the platform. The weight of our cylinder assembly was about three times that of the two telescoping cylinders used by our competitors. However, this cost disadvantage was overcome by having faster, smoother, and more reliable performance in the unloading operation. Our customers and users are our best sales people and it is a real joy to hear from others the remarks made about our unloaders.
The early 1980's brought a decline in domestic sales. Grain exports declined and the US was overbuilt with grain handling facilities. The hopper car was hauling nearly all of the grain moving by rail and there was no longer a need for box car unloaders. Fortunately, Straight has exported products for many years and the export sales during the 1980's were most timely.
The standard Straight Truck Unloader is designed to unload large trucks efficiently with some facilities unloading as many as 20 trucks in one hour. In exporting, Straight learned much of the world needs only smaller unloaders. Straight has built and exported smaller unloaders over the 1980's. We have used telescoping cylinders on these smaller designs and have good platform stability because the cylinders are located on the platform centerline. Straight have also developed several types of wheelstops and backstops, to handle different types of vehicle configurations and tilt angles.
Straight has established a maximum tilt angle of 40 degrees for the standard design. The curved tracks become excessively long at higher tilt angles. When asked the disadvantage of the Straight standard design, the only thing we could say was that it was limited to the grain industry, and could not unload things which typically require a higher tilt angle to empty a truck. Some materials such as green ear corn and wood chips tend to require more than just tilting. Until the 1990's, Straight had not pursued this market because of the added hazard of tilting higher.
In the 1990's we proceeded to prepare mathematical models for components used in manufacturing Straight unloaders. As we studied these, we have been led to a better way of unloading the materials that are erratic and often require the higher tilt angles. In 1992, we experimented with an unloader installed at our Adel plant. The knowledge acquired let us proceed with a green ear corn unloader in 1993.
The new unloader is called the Pulsator. It is like the Straight Standard Unloader as used in the grain industry with the exception the platform hinge is moveable in a horizontal direction. This movement is powered by hydraulic cylinders placed horizontally and these "pulsate" the load to start the flow at tilt angles that are lower than the "angle of slide" for the material and trailer being unloaded. This lets an operator have control over the rate of discharge. Since unloading is done at lower tilt angles, we think the Pulsator is a safe unloading concept for material requiring a tilting unloader.
In 1993 we pursued a patent in most countries open to us thru the PCT at the time of filing plus a few others with significant markets. All of these countries represent about half of the world's population.
By 1998 we had completed six pulsation units with many differences. This and our ongoing evaluation allowed us real unloading experience with green ear corn, 150 lb. bags of cocoa beans, steel scrap, cotton seed, coal, and wood chips. This brought Straight in 1999 to the point where standardization of the pulsating components was complete. Following on from this, the Pulsator design has been made universal, so a single unit can unload all types of materials.
From 2005 Straight will seek alliances which will allow it to fully exploit the pulsation concept in all industries applicable world wide. We would invite you to read some of the Customer Recommendations and Case Studies to hear about the Pulsator not just from us, but from our customers. If interested in an alliance to provide the Pulsator to your customers, please contact us.