The lift truck has become such an important piece of machinery found and used in most industrial operations and warehousing, since its introduction to the market more than 90 years ago during the 1920's. Among the forklift's pioneers, Clark has grown to become an industry leading supplier in the material handling business. Other well-known names in the making of these machines consist of: Mitsubishi, Cat, Toyota, Hyster, Nissan and Yale.
The Hyster brand of forklift has become amongst the industries most popular manufacturers. In fact, in several places, the word "Hyster" is synonymous with forklift. Other common 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 first made during the early part of the 19th century. At this time, small, battery-powered units were made for the purpose of moving traveler's luggage at the Altoona train station within Pennsylvania. During WWI, various versions were developed in England specifically for use in the material handling business. These machinery evolved as a solution to the manpower shortage at that time.
Today's machinery come in various sizes and configurations. Sod loaders are big truck-mounted lift truck units and several of the larger equipment, whereas the smaller machines consist of hand truck units. There are also a line of automated versions referred to as forklift automated guided vehicles that are basically robotic in nature. These units were developed as a means of lowering operational costs and to improve production.
A regular lift truck is able to utilize a wide range of attachments that are capable of being added for a range of specific functions. The motors could be internal combustion or IC units, working on gasoline, propane or diesel, or there are battery operated options that need regular charging. Standard warehouse models will normally be rated to raise between about 1 and 5 tons.
Since their evolution, forklifts have become a priceless component of the material handling business. Thousands of these units are used each day throughout the globe to perform jobs which used to need much more man-power. Operators need to take stringent training courses in order to run these heavy equipment safely and legally. Numerous workers have better overall health and longer careers now due to their not having to raise items by hand anymore since the forklifts can handle those situations now instead.