New mast meets higher requirements

Now available from Motrac: newly designed heavy duty lifting masts for Linde R14 HD to R25 reach trucks with a capacity of 1.4 to 2.5 tons. These masts give drivers a better view of the load and its surroundings as well as having a greater residual carrying capacity, allowing the trucks to move pallets quickly and safely at lift heights of up to 15 meters. 

To handle more goods and a wider range of products, both warehouses and racking are getting higher and higher. As a result, there are increasing demands on reach trucks, as loads must be able to be put away and picked up quickly and safely even at the upper girder level. And that's not all: while the vehicles can lift higher and higher with the mast extended, they must also be able to maneuver smoothly through aisles and between racks with the mast retracted. At the same time, the vehicle must not get any longer. Every centimeter counts, so that the truck remains as maneuverable as possible, can handle narrow aisles and storage areas are utilized optimally. Finally, it is important to deal with the mast vibrations that occur with increasing lift height and with increasingly restricted visibility conditions.

Optimized visibility for increased safety and improved handling

The best possible view of the load and surroundings is the basic requirement for safe working with reach trucks. The new heavy mast achieves this in two ways. First, the mast is wider than previous models, and second, the designers were able to omit the cross bars that were previously required. This provides significantly more visibility between the mast sections, which in turn significantly improves fork visibility. Depending on the type and version of the mast, the driver's field of vision is increased by up to 27 percent.

The optimized design of the upper transverse beam also improves upward visibility, allowing the driver to better see the forks and thus maneuver when picking and placing at high lift heights. But it is not only upward visibility that has been improved. The new mast also allows optimum visibility of the working environment, as it is mounted in a more favorable position on the vehicle. This allows the driver to see past the mast and the load without having to lean to the side.

With a lifting height up to 15 meters reaches a full two meters higher than the previous generation of masts. The new mast also has a higher residual carrying capacity, so the trucks can handle significantly heavier loads than before, up to higher lift heights. To ensure that the reach trucks with the new mast can safely pass through warehouse passages, Linde MH has further optimized the ratio of lift height to drive height. As a result, the new 15-meter mast when retracted is even lower than the 13-meter version of the previous model.

More robust and user-friendly

Even greater mast stability is provided by more robust mast profiles with reinforcements that give the lift mast additional rigidity and minimize deflection of individual components. This results in less mast vibration when picking up and putting away at high lift heights, eliminating the need for the driver to wait a long time until the mast has stopped swinging and is stable again. It also prevents collisions between mast and racking, which often cause serious damage to loads and racking. Even greater mast stability at high heights can be achieved with the optional Dynamic Mast Control (DMC) driver-assist system: a sensor-controlled electric drive system that compensates for mast vibration and deflections through targeted and high-precision counter movements. The truck length is unchanged, allowing the reach trucks be able to maneuver in narrow warehouse aisles as usual.