Lift trucks are utilized within warehousing, manufacturing, mining, material handling and construction applications to lift, engage and transport palletized loads. Lift trucks have 3 basic kinds: a manual drive, motorized drive and fork truck. The travel or load movement is powered manually or by walking behind the machinery with manual-drive lift trucks.
The motorized forklift models come equipped with a motorized drive and in a lot of cases have a protected cab or seat in their design in order to keep the operator comfortable and safe. Fork trucks are a different type that are motorized and comprise features like backup alarms and cabs. In order to prevent the equipment from turning over, some forklifts are counterbalanced. Other models consist of safety rails, a rotating element such as a turntable or different kinds of hand rails.
When selecting lift trucks, important specifications to take into account include stroke and lift capacity. 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. Other specifications for lift trucks consist of their tire and type of fuel.
Forklifts comprise different fuel options such as: liquid propane or LPG, CNG or compressed natural gas, propane, diesel fuel, gasoline and natural gas. There are 2 basic kinds of tires utilized for operating fork trucks and forklifts: pneumatic and solid. Solid or cushion tires do not puncture and require less maintenance than pneumatic tires. The solid or cushion tires do offer less shock absorption overall. Air-inflated or pneumatic tires on the other hand offer great drive traction and load-cushioning.
There are 7 classes of lift trucks. The first class of forklifts, Class I, is either seated or stand-up 3 wheeled units which are electric-motor rider trucks. Normally, rider units are counterbalanced and can have either pneumatic or cushion wheels. Class II forklifts are electric motor units which are used for stock applications or order picking in narrow aisle environments. These types of forklifts provide extra reach functions or swing mast.
Class III forklifts are either standing-rider or walk-behind operated electric-motor trucks. Automated pallet lift trucks and high lift models are normally counterbalanced units. Class IV lift trucks have seated controls and cabs. These models are rider fork trucks with internal combustion or IC engines. Furthermore, this class has solid or cushion tires.
Rider fork Trucks are included in Class V. These equipment would have cabs and seated controls, pneumatic tires and IC or internal combustion engines. Similar to Class IV lift trucks, they are normally counterbalanced. Class VI lift trucks are tow tractor lifts which are designed for a sit-down rider. This particular class is supplied with IC or internal combustion or electric engines.
Class VII lift trucks are the last classification and include rough terrain lift trucks, which are usually utilized in agricultural, construction and logging applications. Class VII forklifts consist of all burden carriers and personnel carriers.