Pro Vehicles

Forklifts and Forklift Trucks

Forklifts are powered industrial trucks that are often used in lifting or transporting materials from one place to another. Sometimes, a forklift is also referred to as:

  • Forklift truck
  • Stacker truck
  • Lift truck
  • High/low
  • Side loader

It was only during the 1920’s that the forklift was developed and used by major construction companies. Up to now, it remains as one of the indispensable equipment in warehousing and manufacturing industries, especially in the UK.

Different Designs

This is a list of the most common types of forklifts:

  • Rider low lift truck
  • Walkie stacker
  • Towing tractor
  • Hand pallet truck
  • Walkie low lift truck (this is usually powered by electricity)
  • Rider stacker
  • Side loader
  • IC counterbalanced truck
  • Reach truck (electronically operated and especially designed to fit small aisles)
  • Telescopic handler
  • Electric counterbalanced truck
  • Walkie order picking truck
  • Slip sheet machine
  • Truck-mounted forklift or Sod loader
  • Articulated, very narrow aisle counterbalanced trucks or flexi-trucks
  • Slip sheet machine
  • Rider order Picking truck
  • Guided very narrow aisle truck

The common attachments of the forklifts are the following:

  • Rotators are used to handle skids caused by excessive tilting. This attachment can also be used to dump containers for easy unloading.
  • Sideshifters are hydraulic attachments, which allow operators to mobilize the tines or forks and also the backrest laterally. This means that the operator may be able to position a load without turning around or repositioning the equipment each time.
  • Fork positioner (moves forks apart or together)
  • Pole attachments (used for lifting carpets or metal coils)
  • Slip sheet (used in transporting slip sheets)
  • Drum handler attachment
  • Roll and barrel clamp (used to handle kegs and barrels)
  • Man basket (used to hoist workers)
  • Carton multipurpose clamps (allows opening and closing of clamp around a load).

Basically, forklifts do the tasks that laborers can no longer handle manually—this is why it is such a useful equipment in many modern industries.

Posts