ELECTRIC LIFT TRUCK maker Raymond Corp. marked its 85th anniversary last month at its headquarters in Greene, N.Y., with an outdoor celebration for employees and area residents.

During the celebration, Raymond executives introduced three new lift trucks and offered some thoughts on the company’s past, present and future.

At a time when so many have moved manufacturing offshore, Raymond continues to build its lift trucks in North America, says Jim Malvaso, president and CEO. The company has reinvented itself three times in the manufacturing arena, he said, with lean being the latest push.

“And today,” he adds “we put out more trucks with fewer people than ever.”

At the same time, Raymond is testing out in its own facility a technology that may well be the future of lift trucks: hydrogen fuel cells. Earlier this year, the company was awarded a $750,000 contract to research hydrogen fuel cells from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

According to Steve Medwin, Raymond’s manager of advanced research, two fuel cell equipped lift trucks are now operating in the plant. Each truck will operate for 24 months, he says. An additional two trucks will begin operation later this year.

The program has gone well so far, says Medwin, and the program is helping Raymond engineers to better understand how hydrogen works.

“We need to go from the advantages of retrofitting lift trucks for hydrogen today,” he says, “to getting the advantages of full fuel cell integration with lift trucks.”