Future concept forklift design with a modular cabin

Material handling industry has changed drastically since the first introduction of forklift truck in 1933. Despite the change in its surrounding context of material handling industry, forklift truck design has not changed for decades. In order to design innovative concept design of the future forklift truck to match the changes, trends and technology research has been done to collect background knowledge regarding the industry and forklift design. In addition, questionnaire research was done to understand customer’s concerns and needs. Combining the findings and insights from the research phase, a new concept of a forklift truck design was proposed. The final design concept (including the modular cabin) consisted of a number of functional components such as overhead guard, engine/battery hood, hydraulic control, steering compartment, operator seat, etc. By modularizing the cabin, the economic benefit is expected to be 10~15% cost reduction per components consisting the cabin. The cabin could be connected to 4 different types of connection components to connect it to the chassis of the forklift truck. By doing this, one vehicle could adopt to 4 different material handling situations, which can offer customers with great benefit.