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Innovative design of the lifting mechanisms for

forklift trucks

Article in Mechanism and Machine Theory December 2010

DOI: 10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2010.08.002

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 Mechanism and Machine Theory 45 (2010) 18921896

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Mechanism and Machine Theory

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / m e c h m t

Short communication

Innovative design of the lifting mechanisms for forklift trucks

Jian-Yi Wang, Jing-Shan Zhao , Fu-Lei Chu, Zhi-Jing Feng
Department of Precision Instruments and Mechanology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Forklift truck is one of the most important tools in logistics. However, the general mast system
Received 17 June 2010 of a forklift truck not only restrains the driver's vision, but also increases the whole weight of a
Received in revised form 3 August 2010 truck and decreases the fuel economy. Therefore, this paper focuses on the innovative design of
Accepted 4 August 2010
a new lifting mechanism for forklift truck. Firstly, a spatial multi-link lift-guidance mechanism
Available online 1 September 2010
is proposed. And then, under the constraints of this mechanism, the mobility of the fork and
fork frame is investigated in theory. Lastly, a new lifting mechanism based on it is presented
Keywords: and computer simulation is used to demonstrate the feasibility of motion. This multi-link lifting
Forklift truck
mechanism takes advantage of exible cable drive and rigid body guidance, which not only
Spatial multi-link mechanism
provides the operator with a wider eld of vision but also reduces the equilibrate weight of a
Rigid body guidance
Flexible driving method vehicle and therefore improves the fuel economy.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Forklift trucks are usually used at railway stations, warehouses, ports and factories for loading, unloading and conveying. A
general weight-balanced forklift truck consists of a chassis and a work device which can be tilted and lifted vertically.
However, the general forklifts have the following major disadvantages. First, the mast system composed of several large
components will badly affect the driver's eld of vision because it locates in front of the driver. Many accidents involving collisions
between pedestrians and trucks are due to inherently bad visibilities of the forklift trucks [1,2]. In addition, the mast system plays
an important role in supporting the loads and guiding the fork frame to lift vertically. So its strength and stiffness must be high
enough and its self-weight has to be increased. The weight of the rear equilibrator is increased as a result, which surely improves
the unnecessary waste of energy.
Expanding the driver's vision has always been an important research project. Some kinds of trucks have improved visibility via
changing the forms of the mast [2,3], while others utilize the visual guidance methods of mobile camera-space manipulation [4] or
computer vision guidance [5,6]. These trucks have better visibility for drivers but they are not fundamental solutions to overcome
the shortages of the general mast structures, and the problem of high self weight has not been cracked completely either.
In order to improve the driving comfort and safety for the drivers and to reduce energy consumption, this paper focuses on the
innovative design of the lifting mechanism for forklift trucks. A spatial multi-link lift-guidance mechanism is proposed, and then a
new kind of lifting mechanism based on it is presented. This mechanism not only expands the vision eld of the driver but also
reduces the whole weight of the vehicle.

2. Proposition of a lift-guidance mechanism

As is well known, a planar RRR-open-chain linkage that consists of three revolute pairs and two links generates planar motions.
Suppose that two such planar RRR-linkages are placed in two planes with a certain nonzero subtended angle. The ends of the two
RRR-open-chain linkages are connected with a same rigid body through revolute pairs shown in Fig. 1. Link 1 is the base and rigid

Corresponding author. Fax: +86 10 62788308.

E-mail address: jingshanzhao@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn (J.-S. Zhao).

0094-114X/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.mechmachtheory.2010.08.002
 J.-Y. Wang et al. / Mechanism and Machine Theory 45 (2010) 18921896 1893

Fig. 1. Spatial multi-link structure.

body 4 is connected with the base through two parallel RRR-kinematic chains, ABC and DEF. It is easy to nd that, these two
kinematic chains are both planar RRR-kinematic linkages. Therefore the track of rigid body 4 must be parallel to both of plane and
plane . That is, rigid body 4 can only make a free translation parallel to the intersection line, mn, of the two planes. As a result, the
track of rigid body 4 is a straight line.
Slider-crank mechanism is a common mechanism that applies RRR-open-chain structure. It is widely used and examples of its
applications are easily found in gasoline and diesel engines [7]. However, in the applications of slider-crank mechanism, dead
points possibly lead to actuating failure. In order to improve the stability and avoid the dead points, this paper replaces the RRR-
kinematic chains with RPR-kinematic chains, which are composed of two revolute pairs and one prismatic pair and can also only
generate planar motions without dead points.
Suppose the two vertical planes that the support blocks and their RPR-kinematic chains located are symmetrical with
respect to the longitudinal symmetrical plane of the vehicle. As is shown in Fig. 2, the subtended angle between the two
planes is denoted by (0 b b 180). Two RPR-kinematic chains are placed in the two planes, respectively. Every RPR-
kinematic chain includes two revolute pairs and one prismatic pair, a connecting rod and a slideway. The connecting rod and
the slideway are connected through a prismatic pair. The fork frame has two extruded revolute pairs connected with the
ends of the two RPR-kinematic chains. As is discussed above, in such a spatial multi-link structure, the track of the fork
frame is in a straight line.
In addition, one can improve the strength and stiffness by adding another similar kinematic chain in each vertical plane, in
which the support blocks located, to connect the fork frame and the truck chassis. Meanwhile, the upper and lower kinematic
chains are connected by constraint rods. As the track of the upper and lower kinematic chains are parallel, the constraint rods
provide redundant restraints and improve the stiffness and stability of the lift-guidance mechanism and the load-carrying
capacity [8].
Now the kinematic principles of the spatial multi-link lift-guidance mechanism can be analyzed in theory. In order to
investigate the degree of freedom (DoF) of the fork frame, one can establish a Cartesian coordinate system, where xoy-plane is the
plane determined by the axes of revolute pairs A and D, the origin of coordinate system is the intersection point of axes of A and D,
x-axis is the axis of revolute pair A. The coordinate system is shown in Fig. 3.
Assume that the subtended angle of the axes of revolute pair D and revolute pair A is denoted by (0o b b 180o), the distance
from revolute pairs A and D to the origin of coordinate system are equal and denoted by a. The coordinates of A and D are
a 0 0 and acos asin 0, respectively. In addition, the coordinates of C and F can be expressed as a yC zC and
xF yF zF , individually.
It is not difcult to nd that, the axes of revolute pairs A and C are parallel, and so are the axes of revolute pairs D and F.
s1 = 1 0 0 T denotes the direction vector of the axes of revolute pairs A and C, s2 = cos sin 0T denotes the unit
direction vector of the axes of revolute pairs D and F, s3 = 0 yC zC T denotes the direction vector of prismatic pair B and
T
s4 = xF bcos yF bsin zF denotes the direction vector of prismatic pair E.
1894 J.-Y. Wang et al. / Mechanism and Machine Theory 45 (2010) 18921896

Fig. 2. A new lift-guidance mechanism. 1fork; 2fork frame; 3extruded revolute pair; 4connecting rod; 5constraint rod; 6slideway; 7support block.

According to the screw theory [9], the terminal constraint screw matrix of a kinematic chain can be obtained by solving the
reciprocal screw equation

T
$ E$ = 0 1

where $ is a kinematic screw matrix and $ is the terminal constraint screw.

The kinematic screw matrix of a kinematic chain, ABC, can be expressed as
2 3T
1 0 0 0 0 0
$ABC = $A $B $C  = 4 0 0 0 0 yC zC 5 2
1 0 0 0 zC yC

Therefore, in accordance with Eq. (1), one can obtain the terminal constraint screw matrix composed of a set of base screws of
the terminal constraint screw system.
2 3
1 0 0 0 0 0 T

$ABC = 40 0 0 0 1 05 3
0 0 0 0 0 1

Fig. 3. Cartesian coordinate system.

 J.-Y. Wang et al. / Mechanism and Machine Theory 45 (2010) 18921896 1895

Fig. 4. Implementation of the new lifting mechanism and computer simulations. 1fork frame; 2front pulley; 3front supporting rods; 4back supporting rods;
5cables; 6back pulley.

Similarly, the terminal constraint screw matrix of kinematic chain DEF is obtained:

2 3
cos sin 0 0 0 0 T

$DEF = 40 0 0 sin cos 05 4
0 0 0 0 0 1

Consequently, the terminal constraint screw matrix on CF can be expressed as

 
$CF = $ABC $DEF 5

According to Eq. (1), so long as 0 b b 180, the kinematic screw matrix of the frame CF can be solely obtained

T
$CF = 0 0 0 0 0 1 6

It proves that the fork frame has only one DoF along z-direction, i.e., the track of the fork frame is restricted to a straight line.
Under the constraints of the lift-guidance mechanism, the fork frame can be lifted up and down perpendicular to the ground.

3. Implementation of a new lifting mechanism

This section will present a new lifting mechanism for forklift truck based on the lift-guidance mechanism proposed above and
simulate its motion in a computer.
As is discussed above, the lift-guidance mechanism restrains the track of the fork frame in a straight line. In order to lift goods
while not affecting the driver's eld of vision, one can use windlass and soft steel cables to lift the fork and fork frame. The structure
is shown in Fig. 4(a). One can set a windlass at the rear of the forklift truck and places some pulleys and supporting rods on the top
of the cab. One end of each cable is connected with the fork frame and the other end is xed to the windlass. When the windlass
works, the cables will lift or drop the fork frame.
In order to verify whether this kind of forklift truck can achieve the desired movements, especially insure the fork frame to be
raised vertically, Pro/engineer software is utilized to simulate its motion. Fig. 4(a), (b) and (c) show different positions when the
mechanism lifts the fork and fork frame up. From the simulation one nds that the track of the fork and fork frame is a straight line
perpendicular to the ground. In addition, without the mast system, the driver has a better vision forwards and backwards.
This kind of lifting mechanism consists of the exible cable drive and rigid body guidance with better structural performances.
Cable-driven manipulators have been widely investigated in applications for their unique advantages such as low inertia, light
weight and so on [10]. It is not difcult to nd that the weight of goods is supported mostly by the cables. Therefore, the
requirement for strength and stiffness of the lift-guidance mechanism is lower, and the weight of it can be decreased as a result.
Meanwhile, compared with components of the general forklift trucks, such as cylinder, chains, chain wheels and the mast system,
this kind of lifting mechanism utilizes windlass, cables and several connecting rods. Their weight is lower and the gravity center of
them moves backwards. Consequently, the weight of rear equilibrator is greatly decreased and the whole weight of the truck
becomes much lower. So the proposed forklift truck reduces energy consumption and improves the fuel economy of the vehicle.
1896 J.-Y. Wang et al. / Mechanism and Machine Theory 45 (2010) 18921896

4. Conclusions

This paper proposes a new kind of lifting mechanism, which is based on a spatial multi-link lift-guidance mechanism, for
forklift trucks. Theoretical analysis and computer simulations are used to verify the single DoF of the fork frame under the
constraints of the mechanism. The lifting mechanism consists of exible cable drive and rigid body guidance, and therefore should
separate the lifting from the guidance which decreases the self weight of a mast system. Compared with the general forklift trucks,
the driver has a wider eld of vision without the mast system and hence both the reliability of a truck and the driving comfort are
enhanced obviously. In addition, because of lower requirement of strength and stiffness for every link of the new lifting
mechanism, the whole weight of a truck is greatly decreased. Consequently, it improves the fuel economy of the vehicle.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 50805083 and a Foundation for
the Author of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of China under Grant 200741. The authors gratefully acknowledge these
support agencies.

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