The Future of the Lift Truck - ModelZ

Project By: Morgan P.

Enrolled in: Central Academy of Technology and Arts

Lift trucks or "forklifts" are highly essential to material and product transport in industrial settings. This student design challenge asks us to envision how we see this machinery advancing, utilizing Fusion 360.

• Inventor (for modeling)
• Fusion 360 (for modeling and/or rendering)
• Paper and pencil for sketching ideas.
• Google slides for idea presentation.

For my entry, I focused on a couple of the prompts given to us and added features to my design that could be utilized in a couple of different ways. I stuck with a semi-traditional forklift look. It was meant to look a little bulkier and be able to lift more. Below I listed some of the questions provided and their respective answers (along with some other details):

What amenities, improved comfort, and storage enhancements are possible?

• Lift trucks can easily utilize extra storage compartments. These compartments can be filled with small material items and packages that need to be transported, tools for quick lift truck repairs, and first aid kits in case of any injuries in warehouses. Workers can also fill these compartments with amenities such as water, snacks, or even footstools to help elderly workers board the lift truck easier.
• Going off of the "space" setting concept -- storage compartments such as these could be vital for storing extra oxygen for spacesuits, space blankets, and more tools needed for astronauts performing tasks on another planet.

Although this is a simple change, our modern-day and future workers can use extra storage on board a lift truck...whether that be for comfort or helping workers of all ages stay safe.

What features and improvements will aid in work environments with robots and pedestrians as well as manual, remote and automated forklifts?

For my lift truck design, I also focused on how to improve safety in work environments. Forklift accidents aren't rare and around 7,000 workers are injured by forklifts per year. The Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC website lists a couple of common causes, including:

• Hitting other people in the area with the cargo load or lift tines.
• Crushing workplace injuries and wrongful death from setting a load down before checking the area.
• Dropping loads when the goods are imbalanced or pallets are not entirely on the forks.
• Failing to warn others that they are working in the area with a forklift.

Ensuring driver visibility is important to keep other workers in work environments safe. When drivers have objects loaded on the lift, it can be hard to see over them. To combat this, I implemented a rotating camera on top of the forklift meant to help the driver see in front, behind, and to the sides of the vehicle.

I added an emergency "SOS" button on the inside of the forklift, but it doesn't just stop the machine. In theory, if a worker is injured, the driver can press the button to quickly send a signal to a receiver in the area, and medical personnel can respond. In a system with multiple forklifts that are far away, signals would be specific to a certain forklift and give personnel information about the location of the vehicle.

Maneuverability and efficiency are also important for any moving vehicle. When I first read the prompt, the first thing that came to mind was omnidirectional wheels. These would greatly help forklift drivers adjust their position when placing things on high platforms and make small changes to the forklift's orientation. Greater precision where forklifts place large objects could help prevent objects from falling off of platforms and potentially harming workers below.

The wheel choice was inspired by VEX robotics kits. I have had a little experience with VEX thanks to some of my engineering classes. The pattern and shape I made the wheels are specifically based on the "mecanum" wheels design.

What about sustainability?

Although this is a smaller detail, most forklifts run on propane gas to get them from location "A" to "B". Instead, I decided to make this forklift electric and rechargeable. There is a small port on the side of the forklift specifically with that in mind.

Above is a small entry I did in my engineering notebook for this project.

In addition to the model itself, I created a DWG drawing to display the different views of the forklift. Attached is also the model before the final render.

The final renditions of the model in Fusion 360.