Data plates
True it is to say that every forklift has a data plate which is designed to give the employer and the operator the information necessary to prevent accidents.
True it is that the data plate is very rarely read or refered to by the operator - the majority of drivers would not have a clue as to what is safe or not.
Why is it so?
I beleive that data plates are not user friendly.the vast majority of operators can not explain what the load center distance referrs to.
Manufacturers have done their own thing since day one , there is no common data plate design therefore confusion is abundant.
Some plates have multiple masts on them,which one applies?
Some plates give one scenario EG, 2 tonnes at 600mm load center, what if the load is 1.8 tonnes at 800mm load center- how can you calculate that,(some plates are in tonnes some in kilogrammes)
YOU CAN'T, there is not the required information given to calculate it.
Does the data plate include the side shift or not, because some of the manufacturers include the side shift as a standard fitting and not an attatchment they do not specify an alterd safe working load & that would be Ok if one standard was adhered to so that operators can clearly ascertain the SWL
Sadly this is not so & I suggest that all data plates should comply rigidly and not loosely to a common standard with clear proportionate calculations made possible.
calculations such as 1.2 tonnes at 800mm,
or 1.5 tonnes at 750mm or 3 tonnes at 1.2 M load center.
One chart must provide the information for all possible situations on that particular machine.
Some of my assessees tell me that the safe working load is the manufacturers model number on the side of the machine i EG, Toyota FG25, they say that the swl is 25 tonne or 2.5 tonnes instead of 1.8 tonnes because the 2.5 tonne figure is altered by the larger mast & sideshift that has been fiitted to the basic machine reduceing the safe figure to 1.8 tonnes.
My suggestion is this - that a proportionate data plate be mandatory equipment. that the manufacturers model designation on the side of the machine be replaced with the safe working load for that altered or standard machine.
Cranes ,gantry cranes & spreader bars are required to display this info in a prominant place for aaall to see -W#hy not forklifts?
Clearly no standard is common to all forklifts as is the case witth cranes.
Some plates are proportionate but most are not!
How many people have died because they simply did not know what the should have known & were not given?