Forklift

A powered industrial truck with lifting forks for raising and moving palletized loads over short distances. Its counterweight and steerable rear wheels enable it to maneuver heavy loads in confined spaces.

Forklift mast: The upright assembly that guides a forklift’s carriage and forks as they raise or lower a load. Its rails and stages determine how a forklift lifts loads to different heights.
Pallet jack: A manually or electrically powered truck that lifts pallets slightly for movement across a floor. It handles low-level pallet transport without a forklift’s elevated mast.
Pallet: A portable platform that supports goods for handling, storage, and transport. Forklift forks commonly enter beneath pallets to lift grouped goods.
Warehouse: A building used to store goods before their distribution, sale, or use. Forklifts make dense storage and rapid movement of palletized goods practical.
Hydraulic system: A system that transmits force through pressurized fluid to operate machinery. Hydraulic cylinders power the mast’s lifting and tilting movements.
Reach truck: A narrow-aisle warehouse truck whose forks extend forward to retrieve loads from storage racks. Its extending mast reaches rack positions while the truck stays in a narrow aisle.
Center of gravity: The point at which an object’s mass can be treated as concentrated for analyzing balance and motion. The load and truck centers of gravity together determine stability.
Material handling: The movement, storage, control, and protection of materials during production and distribution. Forklifts are a central tool for moving loads through material-handling systems.
Forklift counterweight: Mass mounted at the rear of a counterbalanced forklift to offset the load carried at the front. It balances the load’s forward tipping force around the front axle.
Rough-terrain forklift: A forklift designed with large tires and high ground clearance for uneven outdoor surfaces. It carries loads across terrain that standard warehouse forklifts cannot safely traverse.

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