Design Challenge - ALT 2011

Lintje Design

Our new apprentices, Benjamin Wysk and Mario Casper, worked this thing out together, carrying out the analysis, the briefing, the concepts and the modelling before finally coming up with an animation to provide a better understanding.

Our analysis showed that the main causes of accidents involving the overturning of forklifts included cornering at too high a speed, particularly with a raised load; poor visibility while driving; falling from a ramp; and driving on inclined planes. In the event of a forklift overturning, a driver attempting to exit the cabin is often hit by the falling vehicle (mousetrapping).

With the main goal of increasing stability, we therefore decided to split the lower (drive section) and upper (forks and cabin) areas of the truck into separate parts. This enables movement of the mass centre between the front and back wheels. When a load is raised, the entire cabin and mast section moves backwards on a rail, while the drive section moves forwards – this way, the mass centre is moved behind the front wheels so that the vehicle cannot tip forwards while driving or slowing down.

This procedure could be carried out automatically or manually and the forklift would not require more space to manoeuvre. During travel mode, the entrance/exit is closed off by parts of the lower section and, if the forklift does tip, the driver is unable to follow his natural instinct to jump from the cabin.    

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Lintje Design

Henning Weidhase and Gordon Adler founded the German design studio in 2005. The company has worked for Liebherr, Daimler, Eon, VW and the Fraunhofer Institute.

CONTACT DETAILS

Email: adler@lintje.de

Website: www.lintje.de