A Forklift Service Company needed to lift forklifts of different sizes, shapes and weights AND to simplify the lifting gear required.
The Durapac range of KPL-Series high pressure, Kevlar® reinforced air lifting bags were offered. These were to replace 95% of the mechanical jacks typically used. The mechanical jacks were heavy, slow to rise, handles that stick out creating trip hazards and could be unstable.
On many of the forklifts the cast iron body castings have a large radius making it unsafe to use a typical toe jack. As all the service vehicles already had air compressors on board the power source for the air bags was already available.
During the testing phase the airbag was placed under the forklift, either at the side, or the rear. The hand controller was used to inflate the bag and the forklift was raised in less than 6 seconds. Once the forklift was off the ground, two men, one on either side of the forklift, tried to make the forklift unstable by pushing and pulling the forklift. The stability of the forklift whilst on the airbag was far superior to that of a toe jack or a single point lift of a hydraulic jack. To lower the forklift the operator had complete control of the descent of the airbag using the Deadman hand controller.
This customer was extremely impressed with air bags speed, safety, low height, capacity range and stacking ability. 26-31mm clearance room is all you need to slide a Durapac KPL series high pressure air bag to reach heights from 70mm to 520mm and from 0.8 tonne to 70.4 tonne capacity. These bags are also specially dimpled so can actually be stacked to increase their lifting height.
The customer was able to remove the old heavy jacks from the service vans in placement of the bags. They also decided to issue the bags into their own workshop.
