Manufacturers Add Technology to Improve Forklift Safety

“Recent changes have provided opportunities for new technologies,” said Jay Costello, director of training for equipment manufacturer Hyster Co. “We’re making our lift trucks more intelligent to address new challenges. Telemetry provides the ability to monitor performance — impacts, drive speed, equipment inspections — and to identify and pre-emptively address inappropriate behaviors, which ultimately can help to prevent problems.

“Having data related to impacts and incidents readily on hand will also allow companies to better isolate and work on remediating problem areas or situations,” Costello added.

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Hyster also has added an element to its forklifts that seeks to prevent unqualified operators from using the machine, and that nothing can be done without a proper pre-shift check.

“Our offering of this technology for safety benefits is our Hyster Tracker wireless verification system,” Costello said. “The technology monitors the forklift fleet, controls operator access and helps to verify that the operator pre-shift checklist has been completed before operation. The checklist verification ensures that only qualified operators have access and that they are properly prepared to begin operation. Our idle shutdown feature prevents unattended equipment from running. Periodic maintenance, fault codes and impacts can all be tracked, making incidents easier to review and offer ready access to the data, if requested.”

Another safety-related technology advance, said Wayne Wilde, field technical sales officer for forklift manufacturer UniCarriers Americas, is the increased use of blue lights, mounted on the rear of a forklift and shining on the floor, to warn pedestrians or other equipment operators that the forklift is nearby.

Rick Kidder, service training manager for Toyota Material Handling USA, said the company’s forklifts include an active stability technology, designed to reduce the likelihood of a tipover.

“The technology has been integrated into the majority of Toyota’s internal combustion, as well as 4-wheel electric sit-down counterbalanced models. . . .  [It can] sense mast height, load weight, vehicle speed and yaw rate —  angular acceleration — conditions that play a significant role in lateral lift-truck stability.

“Should the operator mistakenly place the lift truck in an unsafe condition, which may lead to potential lateral overturn, SAS instantly interprets those conditions and locks a hydraulic cylinder on the rear steer axle, changing the lift truck’s stability footprint from triangular in shape to rectangular, thereby increasing lateral stability and substantially reducing the likelihood of a lateral overturn,” he said.

Earlier this year, Cargotec Corp. introduced its Kalmar-branded electric pneumatic forklift to the American marketplace. Run on AC power technology, the forklift provides an “environmentally friendlier” alternative for lifting loads between 11,000 and 19,800 pounds, the company said in a press release.

“By taking harmful emissions out of the equation, customers — especially those operating indoors — can operate in a cleaner and safer environment,” said Peter Olsson, Cargotec’s director of industrial sales in North America. — Dan Calabrese and Transport Topics Staff