Forklifts are found in use in a variety of industries. They are particularly popular with the approximately 750,000 construction businesses in the US. They also see a great deal of use in warehouses, shipping, manufacturing, and even retail.
Of course, like most pieces of equipment that businesses use to lift heavy loads, there is a lot of opportunity for damage. Given that forklifts can cost tens of thousands of dollars, you want the maximum working life you can get from them.
That makes implementing damage prevention techniques for your forklift crucial for your High Point business. If you're thinking that your damage prevention isn't up to snuff, here are some key things you can do to extend the life of your forklift fleet in High Point.
Proper Forklift Training in High Point
Proper training is one of the single most important things you can do in terms of damage prevention. Human error is the most likely culprit in most equipment damage scenarios.
If the person operating the forklift doesn't know proper forklift operation, they're much more likely to do something the machine can't handle.
Rather than looking at forklift training courses and certification as an expense, look at them as an investment for your High Point business in protecting your very expensive equipment. It's also a good investment in protecting the health and safety of your employees.
Someone who knows what they are doing on a forklift will prove much less likely to accidentally injure themselves or someone else.
Better Lighting
Did you ever notice how much more difficult it is to drive your car at night? You simply can't see as much or as well as you can when the sun shines.
Sadly, lighting conditions in warehouses, storage areas, and on construction work sites are often less than perfect. Sometimes, it's just poor design in the space. In other cases, people rush through setup because a deadline looms.
Those poor lighting conditions make it much more likely that the operator will make a mistake that either damages the forklift or results in damage from the forklift.
Respect the Weight Limit of a Forklift
Most people who work with heavy equipment know that there is a little wiggle room baked into the limits of the equipment. In other words, they know they can break the limits a little bit without dire consequences.
The life expectancy that a manufacturer predicts for equipment generally assumes that the operators will use the equipment within the stated limits. When you exceed those limits, you put unusual strain on the equipment.
That strain adds up over 5 or 10 years when it happens on a regular basis. Repeatedly exceeding that weight limit also dramatically increases the odds of a catastrophic failure of one or more parts. This means more money spent for maintenance or replacement, which could cripple your High Point business if you are unprepared.
Balance Loads
One of the more common culprits in forklift damage is an unbalanced load. You often see this problem in warehouses when a pallet has a lot of heavy items on one side.
This can lead to the pallet slipping off of the forks or attachment. While it may not damage the forklift directly, it will likely damage the load and potentially injure workers in the vicinity.
If the load tips sideways off of the pallet, it can create torque against the forklift tines. This probably won't cause problems if it only happens occasionally. If it happens all of the time, that torque will put pressure on parts in a way they weren't designed to manage.
It can eventually lead to parts failing prematurely.
