The forklift has become such an important piece of equipment found and utilized in most warehousing and industrial operations, 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 leading supplier in the material handling business. Other well-known names in the making of these equipment comprise: Toyota, Mitsubishi, Cat, Hyster, Nissan and Yale.
Hyster has grown to become among the most popular units of lift trucks in the industry. In fact, in several regions, the word "Hyster" is synonymous with forklift. Other common names for this industrial lifting machines consist of: fork truck, stacker truck, lift truck, jitney and high/low.
The ancestor of today's machines was initially developed during the early part of the 19th century. At this time, small, battery-powered units were made for the purpose of transporting traveler's baggage at the Altoona train station in Pennsylvania. In WWI, several different types were developed in England specifically to be used in the material handling industry. These machines evolved as a solution to the manpower shortage at that time.
The modern equivalents come in a variety of sizes and configurations. There are the large truck-mounted forklift models that are also referred to as sod loaders and then the opposite end of the spectrum has small hand truck models. There are also a line of automated versions known as forklift automated guided vehicles that are practically robotic in nature. These units were developed to improve productivity and as a means of lowering operational costs.
A common forklift is able to use a wide array of attachments which are capable of being added for a variety of particular functions. The motors could be IC or internal combustion units, working on gasoline, propane or diesel, or there are battery operated options which require regular charging. Typical warehouse models would normally be rated to lift between about 1 and 5 tons.
Ever since their evolution, forklifts have become a priceless component of the material handling industry. Thousands of these models are used every day all around the globe to perform jobs which used to require much more man-power. Operators need to take stringent training courses in order to safely and legally run these heavy machinery. Many employees have better overall health and longer careers now due to their not having to lift items manually anymore because the forklifts are capable of handling those situations now instead.