It could really be simple to overlook the essential tire, when it comes to the maintenance of the lift truck. When you select the wrong tire for your lift truck, you could put huge increases on your operating expenses, and more significantly increase your safety risks. If on the other hand, you choose right type of tire you can enjoy significant cost-savings, improved safety and an overall more efficient operation. A properly chosen tire can actually reduce the downtime for replacement and potentially last 40 percent longer.
Tires are really somewhat complex parts on the machinery; thus, it is easy to choose the wrong one accidentally. There are lots of different brands of tires and kinds, with various compounds and treads. This means you need to be totally prepared with the right information when you are going shopping for tires so that you could choose some durable and safe alternatives to help extend the life of your forklift.
Your company must select the specific tire for their machinery according to the type of surface the equipment would be operated on. Indoor applications and smoother surfaces for instance, would normally use tires of a smaller size and made from rubber. On the contrary, outdoor applications need pneumatic tires. Pneumatic tires have a rubber tread and are filled with compressed air. These features give them a great grip on surfaces which are uneven and rough.
Forklift Tire Safety
Each and every year, 200 individuals are killed in lift truck or forklift related accidents each year. Ensuring forklift safety, like for example proper inspection practices, could all contribute in to preventing these dangerous and horrible accidents from happening.
Pre-Work Inspection
The tires of the forklift have to be checked prior to each and every shift. Tires must ideally have the right air pressure, which is set by the tire manufacturer. This is very important because if the tire pressure is very low, the machine can accidentally tip over when a load is being raised.
Kinds
The tires utilized on indoor forklifts will be made out of solid rubber.
Other factors
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration or OSHA require that lift trucks utilized on a continual basis have to be checked at the completion of every shift. The operator must inspect the machinery for any kind of mechanical issues and the tires need to be inspected for excessive wear, cuts or obvious damage to the tires. Any problems that are detected should be addressed as soon as possible to maintain safety.