We listened carefully to our customers and derived requirements for our developers from this," says Stefan Prokosch, Senior Vice President Product Management Industrial Trucks Counterbalance at Linde Material Handling. "The new trucks support and protect the driver in an unprecedented way, they are the most cost-efficient on the market and make the material flow more transparent and even more productive thanks to wireless communication." The newly developed forklift generation is based on extensive data collection: around a thousand forklift drivers and fleet managers from 26 countries evaluated vehicles and expressed their wishes in truck clinics lasting several hours. From improved visibility and a wider step to connectivity as standard, the manufacturer endeavored to implement the customer's wishes.

Equipped for Industry 4.0
"The world is changing, everything is going digital," explained Christophe Lautray, Chief Sales Officer of Linde Material Handling, at the product presentation of the new truck series. Accordingly, the topic of Industry 4.0 was also on the agenda during development. Linde MH wants to prepare the new truck series for Industry 4.0 applications by means of standard networking, thus making it fit for the future: Vehicle data is transferred to a central Western European cloud server, to which customers and sales partners have access, using high security standards. Conversely, data can be received and processed. This will make it possible to install software updates "over the air" or activate functions in the future. Truck health management, remote diagnostics and predictive maintenance increase vehicle availability and help to reduce costs.

Reduced fuel consumption and emissions
Linde has redesigned the drive of its "newcomers", focusing on the issue of fuel efficiency. The variable displacement pump of the engine has a higher volume, the resulting lower speeds are reflected in significantly lower fuel consumption: according to the company, savings of 1,000 to 2,500 euros are possible in a 15,000-hour work cycle. Driving and lifting at the same time is also no problem for the hydrostats and ensures plenty of speed in the warehouse. Something has also changed in terms of exhaust emissions. In accordance with the 3A emissions standard, 4.5 kilograms of soot may be produced in a 7,050-hour work cycle, while the new counterbalance trucks from Linde manage with just 35 grams, according to the company.

Focus on safety
For improved all-round visibility, the fields of vision through the lift mast have been enlarged by 20 percent compared to the previous model, while slim A-pillars and asymmetrical mast profiles open up additional viewing windows and thus ensure greater safety in the warehouse. In the new generation, the ram protection has been integrated into the design of the truck and thus offers additional robustness. When entering the truck, the step is striking: it is only 465 millimetres high and a good twice as wide as before. There are also new features to discover in the interior of the Hydrostats: The armrest is equipped with numerous function switches. The driver can assign different functions to three of them. The driver sits on one of a total of twelve different seat variants.

Common modular concept
With the new series, Linde Material Handling wants to mark the end of the design separation of IC engine-powered and electrically powered trucks. All new counterbalanced trucks in the 1.2 to eight-tonne load capacity range will therefore be based on a common modular concept in future.