Yale Lift Truck Technologies announced standalone availability of its advanced dynamic stability (ADS), one of the underlying technologies in the company’s Reliant forklift operator assist offering.
ADS is engineered to help maintain overall stability and minimize the potential for forklift tip overs. Yale demonstrated the ADS at MODEX 2024.
Stability on forklifts
Previously available in packages with one or more of the other Yale Reliant technologies, such as object detection, proximity detection and real-time location sensing, warehouse lift trucks can now be equipped with ADS as an independent option.
ADS continuously monitors forklift and load status and automatically applies interventions in response to compromised stability. Adjustments, such as a reduction to travel speed or a smoothing of fork lift or tilt movement, are carefully measured to avoid abrupt shifts or jerks that can upset stability. The standalone ADS availability offers a more affordable and accessible option for operations with needs that may not warrant an investment in the detection or infrastructure required for other technologies in the Yale Reliant suite.
Workforce growth, more potential for collisions
Warehouse workforces have more than doubled in just a decade, surging from 668,900 employees in 2011 to more than 1.7 million in 2021, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). A heavy reliance on inexperienced forklift operators has been a necessary coping mechanism for many warehouses, but that practice has exacerbated common safety and productivity challenges.
“Forklift operator assist solutions are a step that warehouses can take today to support inexperienced operators and help reduce the risk of accidents and close calls like an operator taking a corner too fast, pulling product from high racking or tilting the mast too quickly or too far with a load in an unfavorable position,” said Joe Koch, emerging technology sales manager, Yale Lift Truck Technologies. “With this latest evolution of our forklift operator assist solutions, we are empowering an even broader range of operations to put this technology to work to curb persistent safety risks.”