Ever since their launch in the material handling business in the 1920s, lift trucks have gone through a huge evolution. Nowadays, these machines are a lot stronger and smarter. These types of equipment have revolutionized the material handling arena and have become irreplaceable workhorses within our warehouse and distribution facilities all over the world.
At first, during their launch roughly 100 years ago, forklifts were really simple pieces of motorized machinery designed to transport pallet loads from one place to another. Today, very advanced models are offered in the marketplace. These units are offered in a wide array of weight capacities, various designs and numerous lifting heights. In addition, these machinery come with different ergonomic designs to improve operator comfort and numerous new safety features. Keeping the operator as comfortable as possible could greatly increase the overall productivity accomplished during a shift.
A key feature placed on most of the available lift trucks on the market are forks and tires. Tires enable the machine to move around and the forks could carry and lift loads. The basic application and design of different types of forklifts used in distribution centers, warehousing operations and manufacturing centers is covered in this particular article.
Counterbalanced Lift Trucks
Counterbalanced Forklifts include: Electric lift truck models as well as Internal Combustion or IC models.
Narrow-Aisle Forklifts
Narrow Aisle Forklifts include: Turret Trucks, Reach Trucks and Order-Pickers.
Low Lift Pallet Trucks or Pallet Jacks
Pallets Jacks consist of Electric-Powered Pallet Trucks as well as Non-Powered Pallet Trucks.
Counterbalanced Forklift Trucks
The forklift is the most common type of lift truck. This model is the counterbalanced, sit-down type. A weight located in the equipment's rear is responsible for counterbalancing the load's weight. The counterbalance is what prevents the forklift the truck from tipping over.
Counterbalanced forklifts will typically have lifting heights of around 16 feet, or 189 inches. Also, these models are capable of lifting a range between 4,000 to 6,500 pounds. Counterbalanced lift trucks are available with backup alarms and various other types of safety features like lights.
Approximately 60% percent are electric models and around 40% percent are internal combustion units. Each and every type of forklift has a specific place and is best to complete many different tasks. Depending on whether or not you would be utilizing the machinery outside or indoors and what particular kinds of cargo you would be using as well as what kind of terrain and surfaces you would be operating on determines the kind of forklift that you would pick.