When you start looking into using battery electric forklifts, and particularly a high reach forklift in your business, you are really starting to move into specially designed materials handling equipment. In the Australian Standards a reach forklift is described as
Reach truck A lift truck with a load carriage which moves longitudinally relative to the truck;away from the truck to pick up or deposit a load, and towards the truck to enable the center of gravity of the load to be within the wheelbase of the truck during travelling.
What are High Reach Forklifts
High reach forklifts are a very different design to a conventional counterbalance forklift, with very different Engineering design parameters that they need to comply to, as they are designed to do a completely different job and work in different applications. The Australian Standard design and stability for Reach and Straddle Trucks come under AS2359.4.
There are plenty of specific things that you really need to consider when choosing the right High Reach Forklift for your application.
The environment
Reach forklifts are designed to be able to work in standard dry warehousing applications as well as -30 freezer applications. Some manufactures design their reach forklifts to work in a -15 environment as a standard inclusion such as the new Hyundai 15BR-9 series truck available April 2015 . Manufactures can also include a factory addition to be able to work comfortably in-30.
The Utilization
With a battery electric reach truck, there is a large industrial type battery that powers the unit. Batteries bought into Australia all comply to the same Australian standard and are rated as a 5 hour continuous shift battery. Or they are commonly referred to as a 8 hour shift battery. Being that you can expect a fully charged battery to last a standard 8 hour shift.
High reach forklifts are usually found in applications where they will be working multiple shifts, so thought needs to be around utilizing a to a second or even third shift battery.
The Application
In any business space is a premium, so a lot of warehouses are now going up, so high reach forklifts are just that forklifts that will have a high reach. Its very common to see reach forklifts with masts that will lift higher than 10 meters. Which will make sure that any warehouse design has maximum use of space.
Which type of reach forklift
There are a couple of different reach forklifts to consider as well, from pantograph and moving mast to Sit down or stand on.
Again, it will always come down to the application requirements in your business as to which one is the right choice for you.
Added extras
The great thing about High reach forklifts, is that there are plenty of additional extras that can be added to the reach forklift, that make it a lot easier to be lifting loads at such heights. You can have several inclusions such as.
- Height Selector
- Mast mounted CCTV Camera
- Cold Store Cabs
- Additional hydraulic circuits for attachments
- Heated Seats
When you start looking at high reach forklifts, it really is a very specialized piece of equipment, that has lots of different options. Its important to make sure you get the right type of high reach forklift for your business. Make sure you talk to your local forklift dealer about what rights for your business.