The lift truck has become such an invaluable piece of machine found and used in most warehousing and industrial operations, since its introduction to the market more than 90 years ago in the 1920's. Among the forklift's pioneers, Clark has grown to become an industry leading supplier in the material handling business. Other popular names in the manufacturing of these equipment consist of: Cat, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Yale, Hyster and Nissan.
The Hyster brand of lift truck has become amongst the industries most popular manufacturers. As a matter of fact, in some regions, the word "Hyster" is synonymous with forklift. Different other names for this industrial lifting machines comprise: fork truck, stacker truck, lift truck, jitney and high/low.
The ancestor of today's machinery was first developed during the early 19th century. At this time, battery-powered, small units were invented for the purpose of transporting traveler's baggage at the Altoona train station within Pennsylvania. In the First World War, various versions were made in England specially to be utilized in the material handling industry. These machines evolved as a solution to the manpower shortage at that time.
The modern equivalents come in a variety of sizes and configurations. There are the big truck-mounted lift truck models that are also known as sod loaders and then the opposite end of the spectrum has small hand truck units. There are also a line of automated versions known as forklift automated guided vehicles which are practically robotic in nature. These units were made to improve productivity and as a way of lowering operational costs.
A common forklift is able to utilize a huge range of attachments that are capable of being added for a range of particular functions. The motors could be IC or internal combustion units, working on propane, diesel or gasoline, or there are battery operated options that require regular charging. Standard warehouse units would normally be rated to raise between around 1 and 5 tons.
The forklift has become a priceless component in the material handling industry. Many of these models are used on a daily basis throughout the globe to perform jobs which used to require a lot more man-power. Operators should take stringent training programs so as to run these heavy equipment safely and legally. Lots of employees have better health overall and longer careers now due to their not having to raise items manually anymore because the forklifts are capable of handling those situations now instead.