Monday, 30 March 2015

Forklifts For Sale In Dallas Fort Worth

By Leslie Ball


We all know what a forklift looks like. It's a vehicle with two prongs at the front for poking into pallets and moving stuff around a warehouse. More formally, it is a powered industrial truck (PIT) designed to pull, carry, push, lift, stack or tier materials. It is also known as a rider truck, lift truck, lifttruck, pallet truck, or forktruck. The mechanical engineers society of America categorizes lift trucks into six classes. When you are shopping for forklifts for sale in Dallas Fort Worth Texas, you need to know what class of vehicle does what in order to make an informed decision.

The vector forces that influence a lift truck make it inherently unstable. Each year, almost 100 individuals are killed in accidents involving forktrucks, while more than 30,000 see the inside of an emergency room before they go home from work. Fatalities and serious injuries mostly arise as a result of the forklift tipping over and crushing the rider, or from a collision involving a pedestrian and a lift truck. Studies have shown that most serious forklift accidents in which someone is killed or maimed would have been prevented by proper training. In 1999, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) began levying fines on companies that employed people who did not have the necessary training and certification.

Fork trucks are classified according to whether they are powered by an internal combustion engine or by a battery. Non-electric powered trucks may use gasoline, diesel or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Powered industrial trucks are further classified according to the type of tire they have, whether solid or pneumatic. Each one is particularly suited to a specific environment.

Class I forktrucks are powered by electricity and the operator sits on the vehicle. As they do not produce noxious fumes as do internal combustion engines, Class I trucks are used where ventilation cannot support the use of gas-powered vehicles. These trucks may use either solid or pneumatic tires.

Class II forktrucks have incorporated design features that make them suitable for situations where the aisles are narrow. Because they are powered by electricity, they are also useful where air quality and noise levels need to be considered.

Electricity-driven fork trucks where the operator walks beside the vehicle, as if walking a bicycle, are known as Class III. They are referred to as hand/rider or electric motor hand trucks. The tiller, which contains all of the controls, is mounted at the side of the vehicle.

Classes IV, V, and VI are all driven by an internal combustion engine. Class IV have cushion (solid)wheels. Their main use is for shuttling materials from the loading dock to the storage area and vice versa. They sit closer to the ground than lifts with pneumatic tires, and so are used in environments with low clearance.

Like Class IV trucks, those that fall into Class 5 have internal combustion engines and run on LPG, diesel or gasoline. There are also some that use compressed natural gas, or CNG. These are the most versatile and the most popular type of lift truck. Trucks that are used in rough terrain are in Class VI.




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