All our drive shaft failures occurred in the same month & year and root cause for that failure was operators changing direction at high idle with full loads (axle are the weak link in that chain). Defiantly operator ("on-purpose") damage. As far as F/R hyd fluid MCFA, NACCO, LINDE, Taylor all use the fluid if requested. Out of the four manufactures LINDE and Taylor offer foundry packages the other piece together a custom type foundry truck. Molten metal will stick almost anything except chrome rods, it may melt around the rod and cause wiper or rod seal damage and leakage but not damage to chrome. You can fabricate covers that if secured on one side will lay on top the tilt cylinders and rods to prevent molten metal from contacting this area. Parker offers an F/R type hyd hose that holds up very well dont remember the # but comes in a blue skin color. I believe Right Line offers a fork positioner/side shift package that has a front plate guard that will keep the molten metal away also. Polycarb protection only last a couple weeks after its cleaned a few times it becomes dangerous because you cannot see through. I like the high heat impact resistance glass been using this for the last three years for windshields without issues works very well. bottom skid plates can help if operators drive through molten metal (I have had them do that and burn one to the ground) helps prevent splash into the engine/transmission areas. Usually dont have an issue with molten metal on the lift cylinders because they are behind the mast uprights out the splash path. Best advice I can give is while cycling through your current fleet recommend manufactures that have specific OEM foundry packages, in the meantime improvise, invent, find new ways to load furnaces, retrain operators how to properly load a furnace etc

At the manufacturer level I've worked with 6 different smelters throughout Europe and the Middle East and there is no single solution that suits all products and locations.

Emirates Aluminium have never really used their Hyundai forklifts and as soon as they were on site they were parked up due to issues and replaced with Cat Lift Trucks.

If you want to protect cylinders then I'd say the easiest solution for future orders is order a different mast if possible that will keep the piston rods well clear of splashback. If I'm honest though this has never been an issue I've encountered.

10mm lexan is a bit excessive bearing in mind that it will need frequent replacement. Molten aluminium would not penetrate lexan half that thickness once it leaves the furnace.

Chains have no issues as long as they are lubricated frequently and for hoses you can get a fire resistant sheathing that can be slipped over the hoses to protect them. If Hyundai approve of the use of non-flammable hydraulic oils with their hydraulic systems then I'd suggest using it, because I have only seen two total loss forklifts both from ruptured hydraulic lines.

Dust filtration, magnetic fields and operation have been the biggest items Ive had to deal with and solve....with the magnetic fields being the biggest pain as its impossible to test until you are in the application.

Crownd, I know this is an old topic, but thought I'd chime in on the DP50K's you had issues with the drive shafts breaking in case you never got to the bottom of it. I found that the cast houses were using the side of the forks to push out hooks from the molds and to do this they needed to blip the throttle (bulldoze) spinning one tyre, which would then get traction and suddenly stop it's spinning i.e. massive torsional loading through the drive shaft.
On the 4-ton models with the one speed transmission it is unlikely you'd see the same drive shaft failures, because the gearing provides less low down torque in order to keep a similar top speed as the 5-ton units. In addition on the 4-ton as a factory option the 5-ton front axle could be fitted, providing beefier drive shafts and wider/thicker brake shoes....ideal for smelters.
For the 5-ton models a drive shaft with a thicker case hardening was/is available, which obviously does not fix the abuse part, but does make it a little harder to snap a shaft.
I had never seen drive shaft failures on 4-ton models in identical applications and only once the customer decided to use 5-ton models at a new location did they occur.

To be frank i am working with the dealers of hyundai forklifts. and one of our customer who is working on foundry wants some forklifts. so i have to get this modified to suit the requirements.

crownd makes the point I always point out when purchasing equipment- your local dealer can make or break you. No matter how good a machine is, if the local dealer has no customer service, parts inventory, etc, your experience with the machine is going to be dreadful.

As far as foundries, the experience I've had is that the sand involved is a killer. It gets abolutely everywhere. I service a small brass foundry & they always buy a few year old unit & keep it going till the expensive parts start to go- then junk it & start the process all over again.

your best hope is to control molten metal splash; maybe load the furnaces in a diferent manner, install a charger, overhead crane with remote bottom dump hoppers, portable splash gaurds mounted to the furnace etc...

can u suggest me some steps to protect the chains and the lift cylinders in such working conditions. we use hose protection layers and also lexen sheet upto 10mm thickness. but when the molten matels splash over the chains and the hyd cylinder piston it causes too much damages.
could you please help me out with some ideas.

Yep you work in an aluminum melting operation. I have yet to see an operation as such that did not tax the eqipment. I have had to replace diffs, rollers, trannys, spindles ,axles, wiring harnesses, mast rails ect. The place i work on them at got new lift once a year and they were pretty much scrap when traded in on new equip. In other words brother i do feel ya. It is the beast it is.

My experences with foundry trucks has been all bad news regardless of the truck make or the nut behind the wheel.
foundries comprise of moulding sand and iron filings and they absolutely kill trail axle bearings mast pivot bushes and drive axles and they always call you in when the damage has been done, even regular inspections fail to keep up with foundry damage, I would say never lease atruck to a foundry your bound to end up with a dent in your profit margin.


Titus

Mobile equipment in an Al foundry? More information is needed to arrive at answers. Are we a casting operation, a prime metal producer or a secondary metal producer. Do we ship in ingot, piglets, sows, or molten. What departments are we dealing with? How is the raw product received by rail or truck? Are we dealing with metal reclaimation? What is the level of operator training? What types of mobile equipment are we using in the various departments? How is the supervision in the departs and to what level are they trained? What is the manufacturing cost per pound? What is the profit margin we are dealing with? What is the average life expectancy of each of the types of equipment vs the purchase price?

There is obviously a reason why foundries want to rent equipment or lease with full maintenance and that's because they are brutal environments for the equipment.
Damages include impact, operation in an inappropriate manor, etc. Everyone agrees that there will be some scratching and scuffing on industrial equipment simply because of application and we cant compare it to an auto rental.
That being said, abusive operators must be held accountable for the way they drive and what they damage, and the only way to do this is to change the culture within the company they work for, and that is the responsibility of the management and employees. If not, the end result is that the company will continue to pay for the neglegence of their operators.

As far as I know Combilift only makes 4 directional sideloaders. It doesn't seem like it would fit your application.
I would be surprised to hear anyone say that one truck is any better that another in a foundry application - except for the one that you already said that you didn't want.

Our surface is less than desireable, how are they with that?

I've worked on combilifts and like them. The biggest concern I'd have is the exposed hydraulics - lines getting hit etc, especially in your application. While they are well engineered, and gave a lot of clearance, I've had an abusive operator manage to rip hoses and blow the seal in the hydraulic transmission.

Does anyone have an opinion about he Comblift for foudry use?

I would offer that the truck is not good for a foundry in your area, not because the truck was "too complicated" but because the techs in that geographic area were not experienced and trained enough to compete. this seems to me to be a problem introduced by the factory management not recognizing the relationship nature of dealerships/factory/end-user, in the forklift market space.