KION North America celebrates start of production on new forklifts

On Monday, KION North America employees celebrated the start of production for two of its newest forklifts.

Assembled at the company’s South Carolina facility, the Linde Series 1347 and Linde Series 1319 were initially announced at ProMat in April.

In preparation of these new products, KION North America has spent the past two years reconfiguring its production lines and completing facility upgrades to boost production capacity. The goal is to increase capacity to 12,000 lift trucks a year by 2020, up from about 3,000 in 2015.

The research, development and engineering of the new lift trucks is the result of three years of collaboration between a global project team comprised of members from the United States, China and Germany. Each offered in four models, the Linde Series 1347 is an electric-powered counterbalanced sit-down truck whereas the Linde Series 1319 is an LP-powered torque converter forklift.

Both trucks feature a unique mast rail configuration that permits high residual capacity without compromising visibility. Their capacities ranges from 5,000 to 6,500 pounds with the truck being best suited for primarily indoor environments including general warehousing, trucking, distribution and manufacturing applications.

“Successfully bringing these trucks to market is a day I’ve looked forward to for so long, it’s hard to believe that day is today,” said Vincent Halma, president and CEO of KION North America. “From conceptualization and production to now sales and delivery, I could not be more proud to celebrate this milestone with our team.”