Characteristics of industrial trucks
Pallet / Non-Pallet: Trucks have forks for handling pallets and the truck have a flat surface on which to place loads.
Manual / Powered: Trucks have manual or powered lifting or travel capabilities.
--Manual means that the operator provides the force needed for lifting loads and pushing the vehicle.
--Powered means that there are on-board power source like batteries used for lifting and travel.
Walk / Ride: The operator is required to walk or ride with/on the non-automated truck during travel.
Stack / No Stack: Truck used to lift loads for stacking purposes.
Narrow aisle: Lift truck designed to have a small turning radius or does not have to turn at all in an aisle when loading or unloading.
Automated: Trucks that can transport good without any operator
--Non-automated trucks incur direct labour cost of operator
--Semi-Automated trucks requires operator to control loading and unloading but automated transport control
--Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) requires no direct labour cost but higher equipment costs.
Purposes:
-Used to move materials over variable (horizontal) paths with no restrictions on the area covered (i.e., unrestricted area)
-Provide vertical movement if the truck has lifting capabilities
-Used when there is insufficient (or intermittent) flow volume such that the use of a conveyor cannot be justified
-Provide more flexibility in movement than conveyors and cranes
-Not licensed to travel on public roads - "commercial trucks" are licensed to travel on public roads
(1) Platform trucks
(i) Walkie Platform Truck
Walkie stackers are commonly used in the industryand are enormously versatile and can be used in a variety of applications. Stackers can lift up to 2.0 tonne with mast heights reaching 6.0 metres.
They are great for small warehouse where low numbers of pallets are moved or picked from shelves. It has the advantageof a pantographic reach that can reach out over a pallet meaning they can be double stacked. When unloading a pallet off a truck, the reach allows you to avoid the rear axle and having to drag pallets to the edge of the tray in order to pick them up.
At this stage, a forklift licence is not required to operate one of these machines. So that any employee can use the walkie stacker. But however, it is still highly recommended that a licenced operator staff is there to assist inexperienced users.
Operator walks next to truck
Floor hand truck is sometimes referred to as a "(manual) platform truck"
(ii) Rider Platform Truck
Operator can ride on truck
(2)Narrow-Aisle Reach Truck
8-10 ft. minimum aisle width requirementLoad rests on the outrigger arms during transport, but a pantograph (scissors) mechanism is used for reaching, thereby eliminating the need to straddle the load during stacking
Counterbalance of the truck used to support the load when it extends beyond the outrigger arms
(3) Order-picking Truck
Typically has forks to allow the truck to be used for pallet stacking and to support a pallet during less-than-pallet-load picking.
"Belly switch" used for operator safety during picking.