The lift truck has become such an invaluable piece of machine found and utilized in most industrial operations and warehousing, since its introduction to the market more than 90 years ago in the 1920's. One of the forklift's pioneers, Clark has grown to become an industry top supplier in the material handling business. Other popular names in the manufacturing of these machines consist of: Nissan, Yale, Hyster Cat, Toyota and Mitsubishi.
The Hyster type of forklift has become among the industries most popular manufacturers. The fact is, in some places, the word "Hyster" is synonymous with forklift. Various other names for this industrial lifting machines include: lift truck, jitney, high/low, stacker truck and fork truck.
The ancestor of today's machinery was initially made in the early 19th century. At this time, small, battery-powered units were made for the purpose of transporting traveler's luggage at the Altoona train station within Pennsylvania. In the First World War, some different versions were developed within England specially to be utilized in the material handling industry. These machines evolved as a solution to the manpower shortage at that time.
Today's equipment come in numerous sizes and configurations. Sod loaders are big truck-mounted forklift models and several of the bigger machines, whilst the smaller machines consist of hand truck units. There are also a line of automated versions known as forklift automated guided vehicles that are practically robotic in nature. These units were developed as a way of lowering operational costs and to improve production.
A regular lift truck is able to utilize a wide array of attachments which are capable of being added for a range of specific functions. The motors can be internal combustion or IC units, working on diesel, gasoline or propane, or there are battery operated options that require regular charging. Standard warehouse units would normally be rated to lift between around 1 and 5 tons.
Since their evolution, lift trucks have become a priceless part of the material handling industry. Thousands of these models are used each and every day all around the globe to perform jobs which used to need a lot more man-power. Operators should take stringent training courses in order to operate these heavy machinery legally and safely. Numerous employees have longer careers now and better health overall due to their not having to raise objects manually anymore because the forklifts are capable of handling those situations now instead.