A reach truck is a narrow-aisle forklift variant whose forks are mounted on a pantograph or moving-mast carriage that extends forward to pick up or set down a pallet, then retracts so the load rides close to the truck's own body while it travels. Because the truck itself never has to turn to face a rack the way a counterbalanced forklift does, the aisles between racking rows can be built much narrower, letting a warehouse fit more storage into the same floor area. Lansing Bagnall of the United Kingdom introduced what it described as the first narrow-aisle electric reach truck in 1954, and the design's ability to combine tall lifts with tight aisles made it a standard fixture of the high-bay pallet racking that spread through warehousing after the Second World War. Reach trucks are almost always battery electric, since they operate for long shifts indoors where engine exhaust would be a hazard.
Facts
SignificanceEnabled narrower warehouse aisles and taller storage than counterbalanced forklifts 1 FAQs
What made the first reach truck different from an ordinary forklift?
Its mast slid forward to lift and back to carry the load.
Linde Material Handling traces the reach truck to 1954, when the British manufacturer Lansing Bagnall built the SFR, later called the FRES 2, which Linde describes as Europe's very first reach truck. It differed from the classic forklift because its mast could move forwards and backwards in the chassis. The mast moved forward so the forks could pick up a load in front of the truck, then back so the load could be carried within the wheel arms, which allowed turning in narrow aisles. Linde notes that a competitor claimed the first-reach-truck title for a long time, and says the question has since been legally resolved in Lansing Bagnall's favour. Linde acquired the company in 1989.
Connections
In Field
Source 70 years of reach trucks
Sources
1. 70 years of reach trucks
The 1954 Innovation
In 1954, Lansing Bagnall introduced the first narrow aisle electric reach truck
Impact
business owners could increase capacity with higher shelving and narrower aisles without having to expand their premises
In Field: Industrial Engineering, Page text
For customers, it was a real game-changer back then: thanks to the reach truck, they were able to make optimal use of both the floor space and the height of the room for the storage of production goods as space was precious even back then.
View the SourceForklift (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationIn Group: Warehouse and Material Handling Systems, Lead sectionQuote, In Group: Warehouse and Material Handling Systems, Lead section
is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances
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