The British Industrial Truck Association (BITA) has established a new academy for the training of forklift engineers, citing the ‘immense career potential that awaits today’s apprentices’.
Windsor is currently taking on a new batch of future engineers, having established our own in-house facility, the Windsor Training Academy.
The BITA Academy also offers both a three-year Higher Apprenticeship qualification including an exclusive quality assured certificate, and an Advanced Level Apprenticeship qualification, achieved during a fourth year of study.
The trend for hybrid machines continues with JLG’s latest articulating boom lift. The H340AJ is a four-wheel, AC direct electric drive boom lift unlike any machine on the market.
Four individually controlled drive motors provide four-wheel drive and exceptional off-roading, on par with its diesel counterpart. A smaller diesel engine with direct electric drive means less fuel consumption, less noise and less environmental impact.
The variable-speed motors operate smoothly and quietly, and feature proportional control, allowing a smooth, gradual transition from start to maximum travel speed and anything in between.
There was a time when lifting to 10m was the limit for most reach trucks in the warehouse. Not any more.
Today reach trucks not only have the stability to raise a tonne up to 12.75 metres but are capable of lifting beyond 13 metres as well. This increase in lift height and capacity in a wide aisle storage solution enables an additional level of storage to be added where roof clearance allows.
The Atlet Tergo UHX was the first reach truck to offer this level of performance. The benefits of such a high reach truck doesn’t just mean storing more at greater heights, it also means the freedom to put away heavy pallets at higher levels, not simply at floor locations.
The associated time and cost savings can also mean the need for relocation is lessened. “Reconfiguring your facilities to make better use of the height you already have avoids the expense and inconvenience of extending, moving elsewhere or building new facilities,” says Atlet.
Our friends at Kalmar have entered the record books thanks to the remarkable heavy lift capabilities of its latest reachstacker, named Super Gloria.
The reachstacker lifted a steel component weighing over 100 tonnes in front of an invited audience at Kalmar’s multi-assembly unit in Lidhult, Sweden.
The new DRG1000-92 ZXS reachstacker range is the world’s largest industrial reachstacker in Kalmar’s hugely successful Gloria range. It boasts a completely new design, developed to meet customer’s critical specifications with lift capacities up to 120 tonnes depending on application. The Super Gloria model has been augmented with a specially raised cab to enhance visibility and a wheelbase of 9.25m to provide maximum stability.
Stefan Johansson, Director, Sales and Marketing, Kalmar Reachstackers and Empty Container Handlers, said,”Lidhult is the home of Kalmar reachstackers. This small village, deep in the forests of Småland in southern Sweden, serves as the product development centre for Kalmar mobile equipment. Given the local involvement in developing this world record-breaking machine, it is fitting that the team involved share in making a little history.”
The latest Kalmar reachstackers, empty container handlers and forklift trucks are now part of the Windsor product portfolio.
Despite our many years in the materials handling business, it’s still fascinating to see how the forklift ‘brand versus commodity’ debate never seems to end. Of course, the manufacturers would like to believe their products are distinctive. Or, better.
The counter argument goes that whilst some forklifts have distinguishing features or innovations, essentially they all work in the same way and are a commodity item. There’s little differentiation other than the colour.
Our business has developed and grown from being the exclusive supplier of the Komatsu forklift truck product range into a truly unique independent company, so perhaps we are well placed to provide an unbiased opinion. Whilst each brand of forklift offers, say, a different power to fuel consumption ratio, or variances in size, noise, speed, emissions and average work cycles, we are seeing the commodity item view becoming more persuasive.
However, this really is a reflection of the increased durability of equipment, thanks to improved manufacturing techniques, and they’ll always be some differences in toughness, ergonomics and finish. Developments in hybrid technology and the latest electric models have also reduced the perceived productivity gap between different truck types. Perhaps the truth is that no forklift can be judged alone.
Maintenance and breakdown response play such crucial roles that the brand itself may be less important. What matters most to users is performance, and that means great local support. At least we can all agree to that!
