The lift truck has become such an important piece of machine found and utilized in most industrial operations and warehousing, ever 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 top supplier in the material handling industry. Different other well-known names in the making of these equipment consist of: Mitsubishi, Cat, Toyota, Nissan, Yale and Hyster.
Hyster has grown to become amongst the most popular models of lift trucks in the business. The truth is, in some regions, the word "Hyster" is synonymous with forklift. Different other names for this industrial lifting machinery consist of: high/low, lift truck, jitney, stacker truck and fork truck.
The ancestor of today's equipment was initially developed during the early part of the 19th century. At this time, battery-powered, small units were invented for the purpose of moving traveler's luggage at the Altoona train station within Pennsylvania. During WWI, various kinds were developed within England specifically for use in the material handling industry. These equipment evolved as a solution to the lack of manpower at that time.
The modern equivalents come in a variety of sizes and configurations. There are the large truck-mounted lift truck models that are also known as sod loaders and then the opposite end of the spectrum has small hand truck models. There are also a line of automated versions referred to as forklift automated guided vehicles which are basically robotic in nature. These units were made to improve production and as a way of lowering operational costs.
A common lift truck is able to use a wide range of attachments which are capable of being added for a variety of particular functions. The motors could be internal combustion or IC models, working on diesel, gasoline or propane, or there are battery operated options that require regular charging. Typical warehouse units would usually be rated to raise between about 1 and 5 tons.
The forklift has become a priceless component in the material handling industry. Many of these models are utilized each day throughout the world to complete jobs which used to require much more man-power. Operators should take stringent training courses so as to legally and safely operate these heavy machines. Many employees have better health overall and longer careers now due to their not having to lift things by hand anymore since the forklifts can handle those situations now instead.