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www.foodlogistics.com FOOD LOGISTICS • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 41 are at, so it's difficult to stop them at the right (rack) position," says Ed Campbell, sales manager at Landoll Corp. "Our new high lift model will be equipped with a shelf-level selector that uses a camera and a shelf sen- sor, so the operator can just program in what level they want the forks to go to and they automatically stop at the right position." With more lift trucks in tighter areas, the market for presence warn- ing devices like blue lights, self-adjusting back-up alarms, and flashing and strobe lights have almost become must-have add-ons on any truck in the fleet. "Instead of 10 beeping horns in a facility, you install a blue light on the overhead guard and it shoots out a stream of laser-like, blue light that alerts workers on the floor and on mezzanines to the presence of a forklift," says Jim Chesla, vice president of business products at Starke ForkLift. "That's one of the biggest after-market safety products in the forklift industry today." ◆ S T Ä RKE IS STRENGTH Are Hydrogen Fuel Cells A 'Safer' Alternative? O ne of the recent trends in lift trucks and mate- rial handling in general is the emergence of the hydrogen fuel cell (HFC). In the case of lift trucks, HFCs are being touted as a safer alternative for power in a lift truck or forklift than the current widespread use of lead-acid batteries. But that brings up an interesting question … is the adaption of hydrogen fuels cells in lift trucks a safety feature? Will the safety of the entire fleet of lift trucks improve with a conversion to hydrogen fuel cell technology? The answer depends on who you talk to, with the outlook toward fuel cell technology in general rang- ing from highly skeptical to positive, with a healthy dose of "wait and see." "We're not seeing much interest (in HFCs) from our customers; it's sort of stalled in my point of view," says Jim Chesla, vice president of business products at Starke Fork- Lift based in Canada. "In a lot of lift trucks, the battery is used for stability and balance, so replacing that with a single HFC, it causes stability and balance issues," says Steve Rogers, senior prod- uct marketing consultant at Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America (MCFA). "To make up for that weight requires a lot of redesign and it becomes a very specialized lift truck." Since the only byproduct of a hydrogen fuel cell is heat and water, proponents of the fuel cell movement like Plug Power Inc., the Latham, N.Y.-based pro- ducer of hydrogen fuel cell technologies, have always touted the environmental benefits of the fuel cell over the lead-acid battery. But since you can't just drop a fuel cell into any old lift truck, lift truck manufacturers have yet to fully embrace fuel cell technology. That changed in December of 2014 when NAC- CO Materials Handling Group (NMHG), the parent company of Hyster Co. and Yale Materials Handling Corp., upped the ante on the hydrogen fuel cell trend by acquiring Nuvera Fuel Cells, Inc. The addition of Nuvera makes NMHG the first lift truck OEM to offer on-site hydrogen generation and refueling capabilities, addressing the type of hydro- gen "infrastructure" issues that crop up time and time again as the main stumbling block to full-scale fuel cell technology adaption by lift truck manufac- turers and warehouse owners. "With fuel cells, there are still a number of ROI considerations that have yet to be fully resolved with the technology," says Andy Smith, director of mar- keting product management at Crown Equipment. "The complexity of the technology, reliability issues in performance, the total cost of ownership and the absence of refueling infrastructure continue to limit widespread adaption." For the record, NMHG is realistic that its acquisi- tion and entry into the HFC sector will reap profits and market share. Plug Power is still struggling to be profitable, and leaders at NMHG acknowledge the addition of Nuvera will cause "significant operating losses" while it works to commercialize the HFC technology to achieve a break-even bottom line. Then there's this finishing note, courtesy of Mark Porwit, director of marketing and product manage- ment at Unicarriers Americas ... what about the next best technological trend for lift trucks? "It's not out of the question that HFCs could be leapfrogged by another technology altogether," speculates Porwit. ◆ For more information: CROWN EQUIPMENT CORP., 419-629-2311, www.crown.com LANDOLL CORP.,, 800-428-5655, www.landoll.com/mhp MITSUBISHI CATERPILLAR FORKLIFT AMERICA (MCFA), 713-365-1000, www.mcfa.com PLUG POWER, INC., 518-782-7700, www.plugpower.com RAYMOND CORP., 800-235-7200, www.raymondcorp.com SICK AG, 800-325-7425, www.sick.com STARKE MATERIAL HANDLING GROUP, 877-435-4352, www.starkecanada.com TOYOTA INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT, 800-226-0009, www.toyotaforklift.com UNICARRIERS AMERICAS CORP., 800-971-5438, www.unicarriersamericas.com YALE MATERIALS HANDLING CORP./NACCO MATERIALS HANDLING GROUP (NMHG), 440-449-9600, www.yale.com • Infrastructure and costs relat- ed to refueling have slowed the pace of hyrdrogen fuel cell ex- pansion. Image courtesy of www.nuvera.com