One of Crown's award-winning designs

Crown Equipment Corp's design center has won a gold International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) for its ST 3000, SX 3000 and WF 3000 family of electric walk-behind forklifts.

New Bremen-based Crown introduced the replacement stacker line in 2005, targeting smaller warehouse and retail operations with needs to transport pallets, pick orders or move heavy items. In addition, one of these forklifts can serve as a portable and adjustable-height work tool.

Competition juror Robin Edman says of the Crown entry in the business and industrial products category: "Crown sets the standard with an extremely well-planned, intuitive, attractive, functional and appropriate project. You just want to use it." Edman is chief executive officer of the Swedish Industrial Design Foundation.

Crown improved stacker ergonomics with the X10 control handle, which allows primary lift, travel and horn controls to be activated simultaneously with one hand. The X10 provides for an optimum turning radius with a low-steer effort.

A large storage tray for tools, pens and knives and a bungee strap to hold loose paper are standard features.

With capabilities to reach heights up to 14 feet (4.2 metres), the ST3000 and WF3000 Series models can stack goods weighing up to 2000lb (900kg), and the SX3000 model can lift 3000lb (1,350kg).

Crown says sales of the new walkie straddle stackers increased more than 90% worldwide versus comparable Crown models.

In general, the ST replaces the M model, the SX replaces 30W and the WF replaces EM.

Initial list pricing for the line was USD10,400-USD14,000 depending on model and options.

The Industrial Designers Society of America, based in Dulles, Virginia, and BusinessWeek magazine co-sponsored the IDEA competition, which drew 1,691 entries from 30 countries. Organisers will present 20 gold, 19 silver and 42 bronze awards at a 20 October ceremony during the Connecting'07 World Design Congress in San Francisco, California. Until this year, the acronym IDEA stood for Industrial Design Excellence Award.

In earlier IDEA competitions, Crown received a 2006 silver for its TSP 6000 turret stockpicker (Forkliftaction.com News #269), a 2004 silver for its PE 4000 series end-control pallet truck, a 2003 gold for its FC 4000 four-wheel sit-down counterbalanced electric truck and a 1999 gold for its Wave Work assist vehicle.