Crown scores big fuel cell win in US
October 1st 2011 Largest independent Coca-Cola bottling company in the USA takes delivery of Crown
lift-truck fleet powered by fuel-cell technology
Anew fleet of 35 Crown FC 4500 Series counterbalanced
lift trucks, fitted with fuel cells, has been delivered to
Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated.
"As one of the first Coca-Cola bottlers to make the move to
use fuel-cell lift trucks, it was important that we set the standard
by partnering with a provider that has conducted significant
research on the technology and has a strong commitment to its
customers' sustainability initiatives as well as its own," explains
Dave Brown, vice president of manufacturing at Coca-Cola
Bottling Co. Consolidated. "After visiting Crown's fuel-cell
research centre and touring its manufacturing areas, we were
confident Crown was the right choice."
For the past few years, the company has been researching the
performance and sustainability issues associated with the use of
fuel cells in lift
trucks, working
closely with
leading fuel-cell
manufacturers to
optimise both
aspects. Exhaustive
testing has
produced valuable
data about the
ways lift trucks
must be adapted
so they can be
fitted with the new
technology – now customers can be confident that their fuel cellpowered
lift trucks meet the same high standards as conventional
electrically powered lift trucks. This also applies to the fuel cellpowered
fleet of FC 4500 Series counterbalanced lift trucks that
has just been delivered to Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated.
The past few years have seen substantial investment in the
development of fuel-cell technology, especially in the USA.
Crown has been researching fuel-cell forklift applications for
more than seven years and in October 2008, the company set up
its own dedicated fuel-cell research and test centre. Crown also
initiated the industry's first fuel-cell qualification programme
and has now qualified more than 20 lift truck models to operate
with fuel-cells in the American market.Many of these lift trucks
are already in use at customer locations throughout Canadaand
the United States.
Crown has long believed that technologies should only be
launched onto the market once they are fully developed, so it was
clear from a very early stage that lift trucks should only be fitted
with fuel cells once they were capable of matching the high
standards of performance, efficiency and safety attained by
conventional battery-driven vehicles. Crown set up a research
and test centre near its U.S headquarters in Ohio, dedicated
exclusively to fuel-cell technology research, and the company is
also the first lift-truck manufacturer to set up a qualification
programme for fuel cells. Crown works closely with government
institutions which have been supporting the development of
fuel-cell technology in the USA
for many years. More articles from Crown Lift Trucks Ltd: | 
