Crown wins “Design for Safety” award at IMHX 2013, a “Best Product” award at Germany’s LogiMAT 2013 and two nominations in the InternationalForklift Truck of the Year Awards (IFOY).
An independent panel of experts have awarded the Crown WT 3040 rider powered pallet truck the prestigious “Design for Safety” Award in the Industrial Vehicles category at IMHX 2013. This award follows a recent win at LogiMAT where Crown’s QuickPick® Remote, an intuitive remote control for low-level order pickers, won “Best Product 2013” award in the “Order-Picking, Packaging, Securing” category and recent nominations for the prestigious IFOY Award for two other Crown products – the TSP 7000 Very Narrow Aisle turret truck and InfoLink® fleet management system.
Design for Safety Award
Judged by an expert panel, the BITA Design for Safety Awards recognise companies or products which have made a measurable contribution to the level of safety awareness or injury reduction in materials handling operations. One of the major hazards associated with the fast-moving warehouse environment is injuries to the feet of truck operators, often caused by operators inadvertently failing to keep their feet within the perimeter of the truck.
Crown’s WT 3040 rear-entry powered pallet truck was judged by the panel to have made a measurable contribution to improving safety awareness through its innovative Entry Bar Safety Switch. This patented bar is integrated into the leading edge of the fixed platform and is designed to stop the truck immediately if the operator’s foot ventures outside the truck and depresses the switch. In practice, this means the Crown WT 3040 will not move until the operator’s feet are within the perimeter of the truck and if a foot strays outside the confines of the truck, stepping onto the Entry Bar Safety Switch, the truck will immediately stop.
Best Product 2013 Award
The Design for Safety Award follows on from the “Best Product 2013” award presented by an independent jury at LogiMAT for Crown’s intuitive remote control for low-level order pickers, QuickPick® Remote, in the “Order-Picking, Packaging, Securing” category. Low-level order picking is a tough job and in the course of an average shift, order pickers may walk up to 25,000 steps at speeds of up to 3 mph – equivalent to a total distance of as much as 15.6 miles. In addition, pickers must frequently bend down, straighten up, and carry heavy objects, so it is not surprising that they burn as much as 3,500 calories in a single shift.
Crown QuickPick® Remote makes this demanding work significantly easier and is especially suitable for large-scale wholesale operations and retail hubs. The wireless transceiver and controls are incorporated into a special glove, which allows order pickers to control the movement of their trucks from a distance while keeping both hands free. Using intuitive controls, pickers can guide their trucks to the next pick location without having to climb into or out of the truck. This substantially reduces the number of steps pickers have to take, whether or not they are carrying loads. It also means they can take the most direct route from one location to the next, and drastically reduces the laborious process of climbing into and out of operator compartments. Each truck is fitted with a front-facing laser and two additional lasers in the front apron, which help to identify obstacles and avoid collisions.
IFOY Award nominations
Crown’s dual nomination for the International Forklift Truck of the Year (IFOY) Award is yet another cause for celebration. The innovations, ergonomics and efficiency embodied in Crown’s TSP 7000 VNA turret truck convinced the jury to nominate it in the “Warehouse Trucks” category, while Crown’s performance in a project for British firm Spicers won the company a second nomination in the “Forklift Truck Solutions” category, which focuses on system solutions for intralogistics. Spicers decided to replace their entire fleet with Crown lift trucks supported by the innovative InfoLink® fleet management system. In the process they reduced the size of their fleet by more than 40% while simultaneously increasing productivity and slashing maintenance and repair costs by an impressive 90%.
The IFOY Award is bestowed on the year’s best forklift trucks and system solutions in four different categories. The annual award is made by an independent panel of international trade journalists. The IFOY Award is organised and sponsored by the VDMA’s Materials Handling and Logistics Systems Sector Association, under the patronage of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. CeMAT, the world’s leading trade fair for intralogistics, is the platform for the award presentation in Hanover.
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