Crown Equipment Corporation is a family-owned business with head offices in the USA, Australia and Germany, operating a global distribution and service network with more than 70 fully-owned subsidiaries and over 300 independent dealerships.
Since the company first started building material handling equipment in the 1950s, Crown products have won numerous industry accolades and 2011 has been no exception with the company receiving some of industry’s highest accolades. Its market-leading position has been further enhanced with the introduction of advanced and innovative products aimed at improving performance and productivity while reducing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).
IDEA Gold Award 2011 for WT 3000 Series pallet truck
In the space of less than a year, a second international design prize has been awarded to Crown’s new WT 3000 Series of pallet trucks. The new Crown pallet truck received the prestigious IDEA Gold Award 2011 in the Commercial and Industrial Products category.
Since 1980, the IDSA has each year bestowed the coveted annual International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) on products which stand out by virtue of their innovation, functionality and benefits to users and customers. In 2011 the new WT 3000 Series of pallet trucks developed by Crown collected the highest accolade: an IDEA Gold Award.
The truck’s innovative engineering and ergonomics were the key factors which prompted the jury to award this top-level prize. The WT 3000 Series has been designed to withstand the most demanding working conditions in warehouses and loading bays, day after day. Its robustness and exceptionally operator-friendly design were also acknowledged earlier this year when the WT 3000 Series received the iF Product Design Award 2011.
Design award hat-trick for ESR 5000 Series reach truck
After successfully taking the iF Gold Award and IDEA Gold Award, Crown’s ESR 5000 reach truck series was awarded the Good Design Award in the “Transportation 2010” category.
Bestowed by the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies, the award recognises innovative products characterised by outstanding design and has been made to international designers and businesses every year since 1950. The Good Design Award 2010 is an acknowledgement of the outstanding ergonomics and advanced engineering which significantly enhance the functionality, performance and operator comfort of the model range.
Remote Control with a difference!
Available on the PC 4500 Series Rider Pallet Trucks, Crown’s QuickPick™ Remote Advance revolutionises low-level order picking, acknowledged within the logistics industry to be one of the most physically demanding operations.
Promising enhanced productivity and less operator fatigue, the QuickPick™ Remote Advance is attached to an open glove worn by the operator. At the simple press of a button on the back of his/her hand, the truck follows the operator to the next picking location – reducing physical strain and enhancing job satisfaction.
InfoLink® 3.0: Fleet management system
For fleet managers certain questions never go away but become even more important under intense competitive pressure. How do you increase the productivity of your lift truck fleet? How do you organise the flow of materials more efficiently while cutting material handling costs? How do you collect clear reliable information to achieve this?
Crown’s fleet management system InfoLink® 3.0 is the answer to these issues. InfoLink monitors and analyses the dynamic performance characteristics of a lift truck fleet across multiple sites in real time. A single glance is enough to give decision makers access to an array of operator and fleet information such as battery usage, impact history and truck utilisation through their laptop or other mobile device.
Fuel-cell technology
The past few years have seen massive investment in the development of fuel-cell technology, especially in the USA. Crown has been researching fuel-cell forklift applications for more than seven years and in October 2008, the company set up its own dedicated fuel-cell research and test centre. Crown also initiated the industry’s first fuel-cell qualification programme and has now qualified more than 20 lift truck models to operate with fuel-cells in the American market.
A new fleet of 35 Crown FC 4500 Series counterbalanced machines, fitted with fuel cells, was recently delivered to Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated – further demonstrating Crown’s leading position in the strategic deployment of fuel cell-powered forklifts.
“As one of the first Coca-Cola bottlers to make the move to fuel-cell lift trucks, it was important that we set the standard by partnering with a provider that has conducted significant research on the technology and has a strong commitment to its customers’ sustainability initiatives as well as its own,” Dave Brown, Vice President of Manufacturing at Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated said. “After visiting Crown’s fuel-cell research centre and touring its manufacturing areas, we were confident Crown was the right choice.”
You can find out more about Crown at www.crown.com
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