Jungheinrich outlifts the competition at IFOY awards
Jungheinrich scored two of four awards at the International Forklift Truck of the Year (IFOY)
Jungheinrich’s DFG/TFG 540 s reigned supreme in the category of counter balanced trucks from 3.5 tons
Jungheinrich scored two of four awards at the International Forklift Truck of the Year (IFOY) Awards this year, a competition organised by the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) creates for materials handling equipment.
An international jury made up of leading trade journalists put the contending forklift and warehouse trucks through their paces and ultimately voted on the awards for the year’s best products.
Hamburg-based Jungheinrich’s DFG/TFG 540 s diesel/gas machine with hydrostatic drive and a load capacity of 5 tons reigned supreme in the category of counter balanced trucks from 3.5 tons.
Where extremely high loading performance is needed, during reversing for the loading and unloading of haulage trucks for example, the strengths of the hydrostatic drive – dynamic acceleration, fast reversing and precision steering – come fully into play.
Additionally its ETV/ETM 214/216 reach truck won the Warehouse Truck category in what was an exciting “photo-finish”. In stating the reasons for its decision, the jury said that the highly reliable order-picking truck combines energy efficiency with excellent handling, great driving performance and a range of ergonomic features.
Winner of the highly competitive category of counter balanced trucks up to 3.5 tons went to the RX 70 Hybrid from Still. In the opinion of the jury, this first diesel forklift with energy recovery system and electrical power transmission not only achieved unmatched low energy consumption during the IFOY test but also laid down a benchmark for the development of these trucks, taking the balance of ecology and economy into a new era.
Crown GmbH also won the award in the Forklift Truck Solutions category, for its work at the UK office supplies wholesaler Spicers, where it managed to cut maintenance and repair costs at 90% at the end of 2012, through a new and more efficient forklift fleet, less than half the size of the previous one, combined with the “InfoLink” fleet management system.
In awarding the trucks, the selection process was divided into two phases. In the first phase, the jury reviewed all entries and nominated a maximum of five trucks and solutions in each category.
The shortlisted trucks were then subjected to a purpose-developed IFOY test over the course of one week. The IFOY testing standard is based on the Andersom Test developed by Dutch trade journalist Theo Egberts.
Since 1988, a total of 300 different forklift and warehouse trucks have undergone the Andersom Test.
The IFOY awards are to be presented annually from 2013 onwards in cooperation with the CeMAT intralogistics fair.
