Crown marks return to IMHX with first counterbalance release
January 1st 2011 Crown Lift Trucks exhibited at its first IMHX for ten years in November and considered the event to be a landmark in its development, particularly as it involved the release of new products.
Simon Emery, md of UK operations for Crown Lift Trucks said: “Our customer base has grown, we have a lot to say and good products to offer. Our strengths are total cost of ownership and build quality. Due to our vertical integration approach to manufacturing we can get 86% first time fix.We don’t lose many customers.”
Crown launched two major products to the UK market at the show. The C5 is Crown’s first foray into the counterbalance market. Varying from its vertical integration modus operandi, the LPG truck features some outsourced major components, such as a John Deere engine, which is tested to 20,000 hours and a Carraro transmission.
The truck uses a nonauotmotive engine and with its help, Crown aims to reinvent expectation in the market of what can be achieved in terms of lift truck robustness and service intervals.
Aimed at the 3PL, manufacturing and bottling plant markets, among others, the truck features a proactive stability system, which is said to, for example, recognise potentially dangerous angles in turning and in the tilting of forks and correct these. For the warehouse, Crown also launched the DT3000 double stacker.
Ken Dufford, vice president Europe, Crown Lift Trucks added: “The C5 is a major launch for us. Outsourcing major components for the C5 was a serious challenge.
It is a different manufacturing process and we have not underestimated that.We gave ourselves a run up. The product has been in development for five plus years.We are privately held and we take the long view, we’ll do it right and not cut corners.”
In terms of future trends, Dufford added: “The lift truck industry and IT industries are coming closer together and semi-automation is interesting.We are talking with some customers about how we can develop systems that can help them to improve their efficiency.” More articles from Handling & Storage Solutions: | 
