Efficiency and safety
October 14th 2008 Narrow Aisle Ltd’s range of VNA products includes man-down and man-up trucks, order pickers and reach trucks, but the company is perhaps best known as the manufacturer of the award-winning Flexi range of articulated forklifts.
The Flexi truck’s ability to load like a counterbalance machine combined with its capacity to work comfortably both inside and outside and within very narrow aisles, has made it extremely popular with specifiers looking to abolish double handling and the costs associated with running a bigger truck fleet than is necessary.
Until the Flexi was introduced, companies had little alternative but to operate a two truck system with a counterbalanced machine working outside and feeding a reach truck inside the store or warehouse. But with the arrival of the Flexi users have realised that they can eliminate this often costly and generally inefficient arrangement.
Furthermore, because of their ability to work in the narrowest aisles, Flexis can increase pallet storage capacity by anything between 30 and 50 per cent – thus enabling warehouse operators to get the most from their storage cube. There are various product options in the Flexi range – including both gas and electric powered models – and the latest addition to the range is the Flexi EURO, a compact four wheel articulated forklift truck, ideally suited to low bay warehouses, where high lift performance is not required but where space is at a premium.
The Flexi EURO has been designed to provide the maximum storage density and thanks to its compact 1060mm wide chassis and narrow front axle it is perfectly suited to stacking narrower continental Euro pallets. The Flexi EURO is capable of working in aisles as narrow as 1642mm wide (with a Euro pallet) or 1762mm wide (with an ISO pallet) and, importantly, the fact that the truck has a traditional four wheel configuration means that stability is not compromised.
With the ability to lift 1500kg loads to heights of over 7 metres, the Flexi EURO features all the design characteristics that have made the Flexi range of articulated forklifts the biggest selling articulated trucks in Europe and like all models in the Flexi range, the Flexi EURO is equally at home inside and outside the warehouse facility and can load and unload lorries and deliver pallets directly to the racking in a single operation.
Despite its small dimensions, the Flexi EURO’s operator compartment remains deceptively spacious and has been developed to ensure maximum greater comfort throughout even toughest shifts, while the truck’s European Standard automotive style accelerator and brake pedal layout ensures even more leg space for the operator and improved safety.
One of the first users of the Flexi EURO is a leading UKbased Formula One motor racing team, who employ the truck to save space within the parts store.
Two Flexi EURO trucks have also been delivered to a leading German supplier of outsourced assembly services where they handle car doors bound for the Mercedes Benz factory near Stuttgart where the new Mercedes E Class is built.
Another German customer is the printing industry giant Heidelberg Press. Heidelberg has taken delivery of two Flexi EUROs and the switch has enabled the company to use just one truck to do the jobs that three forklifts had previously been used for.
John Maguire, sales director of Narrow Aisle Flexi, commented: “The Flexi EURO is creating a lot of interest throughout Europe and Germany in particular. We have demonstrated the product at several trade fairs in the country throughout 2008 and the feedback we have had has been overwhelmingly positive.”
“The articulated forklift truck concept is now firmly established and has proved to be the optimum handling solution in many applications which is why Flexis are operating in warehouses and distribution centres throughout, Europe, the United States and Asia.”
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