The IFOY organization has announced the nominations for the International Forklift Truck of the Year (IFOY) Award 2016, with 13 trucks and solutions from BYD, Crown, Jungheinrich, SSI Schäfer, Still and Toyota Material Handling chosen for the final round from all the entries.
“All in all, 16 companies submitted entries this year and put forward an extremely wide range of products for the award,” said Anita Würmser, Chairwoman of the IFOY Jury. “These 13 vehicles and solutions are the best of the best in terms of innovation.”
Counter Balanced Truck: BYD, Crown, Jungheinrich
The jury has nominated three vehicles in the Counter Balanced Truck category, and a truck made in China has made it into the final round for the first time in IFOY history. The three-wheeled ECB18C electric forklift truck from BYD (above) with a load capacity of 1.8 tons was launched in December 2015 and is powered by a maintenance-free iron-phosphate battery. There is no longer any need to change the battery, as the 80V threephase technology permits intermediate charging in just one hour and without memory effect. Read our case study here.
A further nominee and test candidate is the four-wheel LPG Crown C-5 with a load capacity of three tons. The gas-powered forklift has been on the market since June 2015 and boasts an inhouse-developed 2.4-liter engine, a robust powertrain, separate cooling systems for engine and transmission, and the typical Crown comfort level modeled on concepts used in the automotive industry. Read our case study on the diesel model here.
The third nomination went to the Traigo 48 (above) from Toyota Material Handling. The first truck with a 48V lithium ion battery was launched in October 2015. The all-rounder can lift 1.6 tons up to heights of 7.5 meters, and its new electronic power steering makes it extremely agile. It doesn’t need a battery change and can be rapidly charged even in short breaks.
Warehouse Trucks: Crown, Jungheinrich, Still and Toyota
The jury announced five nominations for warehouse trucks three in the ‘highlifters’ and two in the ‘lowlifters’ categories.
Jungheinrich made it into the final round with the totally newly developed EKX 516 (above) electric order picker/forklift truck. Lightweight design with vibration damping, the latest synchronous motor technology and top performance parameters mean that the man-up narrow aisle stacker sets a new benchmark: it can lift 1.6 tons to a height of 17.5m, has a top lifting speed of 0.6m/s and has 30% higher driving speeds. In addition, the manufacturer promises savings of 7,000 euros a year with its 2Shift1Charge guarantee.
Still has earned a further nomination with the highlifter truck EXV-SF16i (above). It has a top speed of 10 km/h, can be used in both pedestrian and onboard mode, and achieves a 25% higher transshipment performance than its predecessor, the EGV-S. The pneumatically cushioned operator platform with height-adjustable sidebars and the patented load capacity indicator are new. The machine also automatically adapts its travel speed in curves and depending on lifting height. One interesting feature is the language-neutral color display showing operator information and warnings.
Nomination number three goes to the BT Staxio SPE 140L from Toyota Material Handling. The compact and extremely agile electric highlifter with platform and initial lift feature reaches speeds of up to 10 km/h and lifting heights of up to 5.40m, with series-produced trucks achieving heights of up to six metres. An automatic speed reduction feature for cornering provides protection for the driver. The use of lithium-ion battery technology means battery changes are a thing of the past.
In the lowlifters category, the jury has announced nominations for Crown and Jungheinrich. The Crown RT 4020 forklift truck with driver platform, which launched as recently as October 2015, can lift 2 tons and is the newest Crown product in this category for years. It has a top speed of 12.5km/h, and the chassis width of just 780mm means it can easily maneuver in tight spaces, as is the case when loading and unloading trucks, for example.
There is also a nomination for the optimized Jungheinrich EZS 5100 tugger train solution (above) with GTE trailers launched in February of last year. The EZS 5100 has a traction capacity of 10t, making it a high-performance tugger train for the full range of applications. The electrohydraulic auto-lift feature of the GTE 312 trailer lifts loads cleanly and rapidly, and ensures that each trailer can be controlled individually.
Special Vehicle: Jungheinrich and Still
The first nomination in the new IFOY category goes to the Jungheinrich EJQ 325 (above). The Deutsche Bahn rail company in Dortmund, Germany, presented the Jungheinrich special design team with a major challenge: the development and realization of a device for changing the IC/ICE wheel sets. The biggest challenge was longitudinal and traverse travel with a 2.4m long load in a work aisle with a width of just 2.9m.
A further nomination is for Still’s horizontal order picker CX-S 16 (above). The series-produced vehicle is additionally equipped with a vacuum pump, a crane boom and a tube lifter from Schmalz so that it can move loads with weights of up to 40kg. A scissor-lift mechanism lifts two pallets to an ergonomic height of up to 785mm. Using the suction tool, the operator can easily pick, transload or pelletize bulky products or heavy items like boxes, sacks, buckets, drums or small load carriers at any location.
Intralogistics Solution: Crown, SSI Schäfer and Still
Crown joins the race with a quick-pick remote solution for Jumbo Supermarkten. Crown designed a semi-automatic solution based on GPC 3000 order pickers and the QuickPick remote system (a past IFOY winner) that has resulted in a 7.5% gain in productivity while considerably reducing the burden on staff. Read our QuickPick remote case study here.
SSI Schäfer wins a nomination for the inhouse-developed fleet solution with Weasel (above) driverless transport systems implemented at the NextLevel Logistik company in Eltmann near Schweinfurt, Germany. Be it containers, cartons, trays or other products of widely varying sizes up to 35kg, Weasel is responsible for all transport tasks between incoming goods, the workplaces and goods dispatch, all the way through to waste disposal.
At the Miehlen logistics centre of Heuchemer Verpackung, Hamburg-based intralogistics specialist Still (below) installed a new space-optimized 18m-high channel storage system with four pallet shuttles and two order picking stackers of the type MX-X in the high-bay warehouse, and optimized the interplay of the two logistics centers.
The IFOY Award-winning iGoEasy system, a combination of automated highlifter truck of the type EGV-S and an iPad as configuration and control unit were used for the flexible organization of constantly recurring transport runs for production waste disposal and the provision of buffer supplies. The shuttles are equipped with sensors to detect overhangs, thereby minimizing the space between goods consignments to ensure that optimum use is made of the valuable storage place in the rack channels. This has increased the storage density for the pallets with overhangs by up to 50%.
The winner in each category will be chosen by a jury made up of 25 internationally reputed trade journalists and the leading logistics media from 16 countries around the globe. The IFOY Award will be presented on May 31 at the CeMAT opening ceremony in Hannover.
January 15, 2016
