"Moving pallet loads of paper - one of the heaviest commodities in industry - often puts a strain on materials handling personnel. When workers rely on their own physical prowess to push or pull fully loaded pallet trucks, they may over do it, which may result in production and profit robbing consequences," says Walter Downey, safety manager, Quebecor World Inc., Clarksville, Tenn.

So the company searched for a better way to handle this tough materials handling problem. It found the answer in electric hand pallet trucks with a three-phase AC (alternating current) drive system. They replaced hand pallet trucks, which had been used for manual lift and transport jobs.

With the new AC trucks, Quebecor has had "an increase in production efficiency and a reduction in maintenance requirements," Downey says. As an added bonus, the trucks' AC drives offer "unlimited operating cycles," he adds. And they provide excellent handling and a quiet, clean operation.

Quebecor World is a leading print media company in North America. In Clarksville it produces nationally distributed magazines, catalogs, and inserts. The AC trucks move pallet loads, averaging 2000 pounds each, from the press areas to pickup by forklifts.

"Electric travel provides easy maneuverability of heavy pallet loads and saves us the expense of going to a full industrial truck," Downey says. "We chose trucks with the AC drive option to take advantage of extended service cycles. Our facility operates 24/7 and we need the trucks to be available on demand.

"Switching to electric travel trucks that have a convenient onboard battery charger was an easy choice," he continues. "The lightweight, compact design of the electric pallet truck, when compared to the larger, heavier industrial trucks, allows us to deploy them and our work force more efficiently," he adds.

As Downey says, "As business and production demands grew, we realized a need to move more paper, faster. Our employees met the new productivity demands, but the manual pallet trucks could not keep up with demand. We actually went through a manual pallet truck every other month."

Since switching to the AC trucks earlier this year, however, Quebecor has realized an increase in production efficiency. "We currently have seven trucks in service and have not experienced any downtime related to the pallet trucks. We plan on purchasing several more for this application," Downey says.

AC drive technology eliminates the high maintenance components found on DC drives, while improving the truck's overall performance. Also, AC drive systems have regenerative braking that helps recover battery energy and prolong operating cycles.

An AC-powered pallet truck still uses a DC battery. However, an inverter in the truck's controller converts the DC current to three-phase AC current. AC power is then delivered to the truck's motor, controlling the speed and acceleration of the vehicle.

Multiton/Jungheinrich
804-737-7400
www.multiton.com