P R O M AT P R E V I E W
| By Emily Atkins
Innovations that count
A peek at Promat innovation award contestants At Promat 2023, organizer MHI will present the 2023 Innovation Awards. The MHI Innovation Award serves to educate and provide valuable insights on the latest manufacturing and supply chain products and services. The winners will be decided from among the following contestants, based on presentations at the show. Entries are judged in three categories: Best new product, best innovation of an existing product and best IT innovation. Here are our picks. HYDROGEN FUEL CELL Plug Power has come up with a new high-voltage 80VDC hydrogen fuel cell for lift trucks, designed to increase warehouse productivity. With its continuous 19.1Kw high power output and refuelling time of less than three minutes, it promises to increase fleet uptime. When combined with Plug’s Green Hydrogen the company claims it reduces C02 emissions up to 85 percent compared to any lithium or lead-acid battery. NARROW AISLE FORKLIFT AND SLIP-SHEET Irish forklift specialist Combilift comes in with two products this year. The Aisle-Master OP (AME-OP) is a stand-on articulated forklift that the company says is the first of its kind. It allows narrow-aisle operation, delivery from truck to rack, bulk picking and item order picking. The step-through operator compartment has design copyright protection. Its patented chain steering system allows the truck to articulate more than 205 degrees. The AME-OP is available in a number of variants, with lift capacities from 4,400 to 5,500lb, lift heights up to 39ft and can operate in aisles as narrow as 76 inches with a 48-in. deep pallet. Combilift’s second entry is a slip-sheet designed for loading containers. The Combilift Container Slip-Sheet (Combi-CSS) is a free-standing, electric-powered, semi-automated machine for loading and unloading containers from 20 to 53 feet long. It has a container-chassis docking system and a bi-direction, horizontally moving Hardox Steel Slip-Sheet with a capacity of 65,000lb. A full load of product can be prepared on the plate and loaded into the container. It can load 20-foot containers in three minutes and allows for reduced product handling and lift-truck utilization, increasing safety, and reducing product damage.
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The Aisle-Master OP (AME-OP) is a stand-on articulated forklift.
INSIDE Logistics FE B R UARY 2023
2/14/2023 3:57:46 PM