A bigger lift: lift trucks designed for productivity are helping forklifts compete with loaders in the recycling industry. (Material Handling Equipment Focus).

The forklift truck is probably the most mass-produced industrial truck in the world, and it can be found in environments ranging from the retail stock room to industrial plants.

Recycling applications are clearly among those where forklifts do their work, as evidenced by a survey of Recycling Today readers conducted in 2001.

In a survey filled out by more than 100 recyclers, 92 percent of the responding companies owned and operated at least one forklift, with the average recycling facility owning three or four lift trucks.

The recyclers responding to the survey used forklifts to handle the full range of recyclable materials, including paper, metals, plastic and other secondary commodities.

They may not be as visible from a distance as their cousins the hydraulic crane or wheel loader, but forklifts are busy helping recyclers to do the job.

TOTE THAT BALE

The forklift truck has found its most common recycling use transporting a finished bale from point A to point B.

Forklifts, sometimes equipped with a bale clamp device, are ideal for the job, says Martin Boyd, internal combustion product planning manager with Toyota Material Handling USA, Irvine, Calif. "A forklift fits that application because it requires lifting a bale up and either stacking it or loading it into a [rail or truck] container."

While all lift trucks may look alike to the casual observer, recyclers have several choices to make in terms of lifting capacity, the type of engine used to power the machine and the configuration of the mast and forks.

According to Boyd, two of the more common types of lift trucks used by recyclers are Class 4 and Class 5 trucks. "The Class 4 is a cushion-tire truck used more for inside a warehouse or facility. A Class 5 is pneumatic and is often used outside."

Boyd says the Class 5 tracks often are preferred by recyclers because of the added ground clearance they have. "In a lot of these facilities, the drivers are constantly going over bundles or piles of paper, and they need a little more ground clearance or else they may get their tracks stuck."

Toyota is now offering a special feature that should appeal to paper recyclers in particular. "One of the problems with forklifts at paper recycling facilities is the vacuum effect. Paper and debris gets sucked up through the underside of the truck and clogs the radiator or the exhaust manifold. That creates the potential for a fire.

"What manufacturers can do, and we have done, is offer a special design on the tracks we make in Columbus, Ind., where we put a solid belly pan under the trucks and vent the hoods," says Boyd. "Now you're not pulling up air and scraps of paper through the bottom of the tracks."

The vacuum effect is just one of several problems that can afflict lift trucks in recycling applications, which are usually more rough and tumble than the back room of a department store or even a warehouse where everything being moved is on a pallet.

Boyd notes that at recycling plants, it is common to see lift tracks used in "bulldozing" capacities for which they are not designed. "They lay the forks on the ground and push large bales of paper. That will kill a transmission."

Lift truck manufacturers and dealers have become aware that the tracks they sell or lease to recycling plants will be heading onto dangerous turf. In fact, safety for lift track drivers is a consideration for plant managers and lift track makers.

Komatsu International America Corp., Vernon Hills, Ill., offers lift trucks with "excellent overhead protection" in the form of metal guarding it installs over the driver's seat, as well as "highly-reliable power brakes" that can help avoid mishaps at crowded paper recycling facilities.

As noted by Mike Mattia, director of risk management of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI), completed and stored bales falling onto workers has resulted in 14 deaths in the past 12 years. Mattia made his remarks when speaking to attendees of the 2002 Paper Recycling Conference & Trade Show, held this past June in New Orleans.

Uneven stacks or heavier bales stacked on top of lighter ones can cause stacked bales to topple, noted Mattia. He also noted that paper recyclers are particularly subject to tipped bale accidents. Forklift drivers will drive carefully near stacked metal bales, in part because they don't want to get cut by jagged metal or damage their vehicles.

In paperstock plants, this is not as much of a consideration, so forklifts are more likely to cut a close comer, possibly jostling and tipping a stack of bales.

DESIGNED TO THRIVE

The recycling market may not be the absolute largest one served by lift track makers, although considering the number of balers now found at retail back rooms throughout the world, it may be much larger than the lift truck makers realize.

The growth of recycling has probably helped lift truck makers take the needs of recyclers into consideration when they consider new design features and options.

The pure variety of applications in which lift trucks are found has caused many different designs to be created, and a recycling plant manager should be able to find a truck to suit individual needs.

Boyd notes that in addition to higher ground clearance and extra armor, buyers in the recycling market will have to consider lifting capacity, how high bales need to be lifted and whether the machine will operate indoors, outdoors or both.

"There are a variety of mast configurations," says Boyd, listing single-stage, V-mast and three-stage masts as among the common ones. Different configurations can reach different desired heights or, conversely, allow a truck to maintain a lower profile to fit into cramped spaces.

"In a crowded building or warehouse, you want to have a short mast that collapses low, while an outdoor machine doesn't have that consideration," Boyd remarks.

While recyclers use a variety of machines in different weight categories, Boyd says forklifts in the 8,000- to 11,000-pound lifting range are common for paper recyclers.

Regarding engine type, "You'll see a mix," says Boyd. "I think for those that are outside most of the time, you'll see more diesel engines. When you start going inside you'd see more LPG (liquid propane gas) engines."

As with other material handling machines, operator comfort and control also has become a selling point.

Crown Equipment Corp., New Bremen, Ohio, is touting its new FC 4000 Series for its ergonomic features designed to improve operator productivity.

According to the company, a cab-forward design provides operators with enhanced all-around visibility for trucks in this class, offering an optimum line of sight to the material being loaded. The FC's low profile and sculpted cowl further enhances forward visibility by allowing operators to see the truck's front tires and corners.

Operator entry and exit is aided by one of the lowest step heights of any truck in its class, as well as rounded surfaces and a tubular steel overhead guard upright that serves as a comfortable handhold. The FC compartment also has been designed to offer more head, knee and shoulder clearance, according to Crown.

Caterpillar Inc., Peoria, Ill., is similarly appealing to machine operators by touting "spacious operator's compartments, a specially contoured seat and flexible operator restraint systems offering freedom of movement with security" in its range of 3,000- to 7,000-pound forklifts.

As long as forklifts continue to be used by more than 90 percent of the recyclers operating in North America, operations managers should continue to see a wide variety of machines designed to perform recycling-related tasks efficiently and safely.

The author is editor of Recycling Today and can be contacted via e-mail at [e-mail].