Forklifts
In material handling, construction, warehousing and manufacturing applications, forklifts are commonly utilized to move and raise palletized loads. With manual-drive forklifts, the travel or load movement is either manually powered or walk-behind. Motorized drive forklifts have a motorized drive. In numerous types of forklifts, the forklift has a protected seat or cab for the operator. Fork trucks have features like cabs, and backup alarms and are additionally motorized. Some models of forklifts are counterbalanced in order to prevent the vehicle from turning over. Other types of forklifts come outfitted with safety rails, or a rotating element like for example a turntable or a hand rail.
Other factors that are important to consider when choosing a forklift include the stroke and lift capacity. Lift capacity is defined as the supportable, maximum force or load. Stroke is defined as the difference between completely raised and fully lowered lift positions.
Some of the other key specifications for the forklift include tire type and fuel type. The available fuel choices are: LP or liquid propane, natural gas, compressed natural gas or CNG, electricity, gasoline, propane or diesel.
For fork trucks and forklifts, there are two basic types of tires which could be utilized. They are: pneumatic and solid. The cushion or solid tires need less maintenance compared to pneumatic tires and do not puncture easily. Pneumatic or air-inflated tires provide great drive traction and load-cushioning. At the end of the day, cushion or solid tires offer less shock absorption.
Usually utilized on rough terrain are Class VII forklifts. These types of machines are normally used in agriculture, construction and in logging environments. Lastly, Class VIII forklifts include all personnel and burden carriers. Dual Fuel forklifts frequently fit in this class.