The lift truck has become such an important piece of machine found and utilized in most industrial operations and warehousing, since its introduction to the market more than 90 years ago in the 1920's. Amongst the forklift's pioneers, Clark has grown to become an industry leading supplier in the material handling industry. Various other popular names in the manufacturing of these machines consist of: Mitsubishi, Cat, Toyota, Nissan, Yale and Hyster.
The Hyster type of lift truck has become amongst the industries most popular manufacturers. The fact is, in several places, the word "Hyster" is synonymous with forklift. Other common names for this industrial lifting machinery comprise: jitney, high/low, lift truck, fork truck and stacker truck.
It was in the 19th century that the machinery ancestors of the lift truck was initially developed. At this time, battery-powered, small models were invented for the purpose of transporting traveler's luggage in Pennsylvania at the Altoona train station. During the First World War, various kinds were developed within England specifically for use in the material handling business. These machines evolved as a solution to the lack of manpower at that time.
The modern equivalents come in a range of sizes and configurations. There are the big truck-mounted lift truck units which are also called sod loaders and then the opposite end of the spectrum has small hand truck models. There are also a line of automated versions known as forklift automated guided vehicles which are basically robotic in nature. These models were developed to improve production and as a means of lowering operational expenses.
A common lift truck is able to utilize a wide array of attachments which are capable of being added for a variety of specific functions. The motors could be IC or internal combustion units, working on gasoline, propane or diesel, or there are battery operated options which require regular charging. Standard warehouse units would normally be rated to lift between around 1 and 5 tons.
The lift truck has become a priceless part in the material handling industry. Thousands of these models are used each and every day throughout the world to complete jobs that used to require much more man-power. Operators must take stringent training courses in order to safely and legally run these heavy machines. A lot of employees have longer careers now and better overall health due to their not having to lift items by hand anymore because the forklifts are capable of handling those situations now instead.