Lift trucks are utilized to raise, engage and transfer palletized loads within manufacturing, warehousing, material handling, construction and mining applications. There are 3 main types of lift trucks: a fork truck, manual drive and motorized drive. The travel or load movement is powered manually or by walking behind the equipment with manual-drive forklifts.
Motorized-drive model lift trucks are complete with a motorized drive. In lots of instances, a protected cab or seat is part of the design in order to keep the operator comfortable and safe. Fork trucks are another kind that are motorized and comprise features such as cabs and backup alarms. In order to prevent the vehicle from overturning, several forklifts are counterbalanced. Other types of forklifts comprise safety rails, a rotating element like a turntable or other kinds of hand rails.
When choosing lift trucks, essential specifications to take into account include lift capacity and stroke. Stroke is defined as the difference between the fully-lowered and the fully-raised lift positions. Lift capacity is the supportable, maximum load or forcforce or load. Additional specifications for forklifts consist of their fuel type and tire.
Forklifts consist of various fuel options like: liquid propane or LPG, compressed natural gas or CNG, propane, diesel fuel, natural gas and gasoline. There are 2 major kinds of tires for operating forklifts and fork trucks: pneumatic and solid. Solid or cushion tires do not puncture and need less maintenance compared to pneumatic tires. The cushion or solid tires do offer less shock absorption overall. Air-inflated or pneumatic tires on the other hand provide excellent load-cushioning and drive traction.
There are 7 classes of lift trucks. The first class of lift trucks, Class I, is either seated or stand-up 3 wheeled units which are electric-motor rider trucks. Usually, rider units can have either pneumatic or cushion wheels and are counterbalanced. Class II forklifts are electric motor units which are utilized for stock applications or order picking in narrow aisle setting. These models provide extra reach functions or swing mast.
Forklift Class III lift trucks consist of walk-behind or standing-rider operated electric-motor trucks. High lift models and automated pallet lift trucks are often counterbalanced units. Class IV forklifts have seated controls and cabs. These kinds of forklifts are rider fork trucks with IC or internal combustion engines. Additionally, this class uses solid or cushion tires.
Rider fork Trucks are incorporated in Class V. These machinery would have seated controls and cabs, pneumatic tires and internal combustion or IC engines. Similar to Class IV forklifts, they are usually counterbalanced. Class VI forklifts are tow tractor lifts that are designed for a sit-down rider. This particular class is supplied with electric or internal combustion or IC engines.
Class VII lift trucks are the last classification and consist of rough terrain forklifts, that are usually utilized in logging, agricultural and construction applications. Class VII lift trucks include all personnel carriers and burden carriers.