Yale demonstrates lift truck features of power, robotics, and telemetry

Lift truck vendor Yale Materials Handling Corp. showed Modex attendees its capabilities in power, robotics, and telemetry. For power, the company's forklifts can run on a range of power sources, including hydrogen fuel cells, lead acid batteries, and lithium ion cHemiätry, providing an electricity source to match users' needs for voltage, charging time, and discharge cycles.

Robotics are flourishing in material handling because the technology has become more stable and affordable, while low unemployment rates create markets with few applicants for open jobs. At the same time, Yale designs its lift trucks to operate in "dual modes," so if a robotic system fails, a human driver can take over operations until a repair is made, avoiding expensive productivity delays.

Telemetry is also a growing capability in lift trucks, allowing them to act as a data collection node, providing supply chain visibility into labor-intensive operations such as direct store delivery (DSD) in food, beverage, and retail, Yale said.

For more information, visit www.yale.com.