Maybe you will be interested in our latest forklift's design! More information, you can visit our website hytsu.com

Tugmaster and others are right, color of a forklift is for marketing only. The Manufacturers want to isolate themselves from each other. Raymond, Crown, and Clark all use horrid colors but when I would like for the unit called in. Operators would always give its color. My understanding is that Raymond purposefully colored oils and etc. orange and sold them for use in forklifts.
Design of the forklift is matter of function. The Straddle design (supposedly a Raymond breakthrough) changed space utilization. In fact all material handling is about storing something as efficiently as possible-saving space, time, and safely.
The forklift manufacturers would be a great place to gather information. Its getting them to be quiet that is hard.

I might be too late to this conversation but there is an interesting manufacturer who let's you "Pimp Your Forklift". Basically you can personalize your forklift with custom paint jobs and accessories (I personally like the 8 **** on the aux handles myself).

I am not trying to promote them & I personally don't think there is a much of a market for this outside of some novelty buyers but I thought it related to this topic and I would share.

See link: http://www.masterlift.com/index.html

forklift colour is all about product identity.komatsu's have been mentioned several times and its true the colour is **** awful but if you are stood 100 meters away from a komatsu you know exactly what it is!if colour was a saftey issue then all trucks would be flouresant yellow or orange.the colour identifies the truck as much as the name badge does.

GLfau is selling the Nissan? I have GLfau HC product but I didn´t find the Nissan in their production range. I heard, that Nissan is completely chinese, not only colour, so Nissan is HC?

I agree that orange colour is good. There must be compatibility between design and colour so the colour may change as design too. But I think orange colour is universal for all forklifts (i.e. japaneese forklifts Nissan made in China which are sold by GLfau company).

thank you everybody,that really helps the manufacturers to decide the color for their new products,while we really want each one of the forklift is "Green",and all of us can do more for our environment!

Yulia

We are about to launch a new range of Diesel and LPG Heavy Lift Trucks in 2009 , and your questions are verry important when launching any new product. How your trucks look to your customers is important as this gives the driver a feel good factor about his truck pluss will help identify your trucks. As many manufactures use the same parts and even the same trucks colour is also a way to identify a truck.

But above all the most important part of any lift truck be it large or small is its functionality. If it not right for the job no mater how good it looks it's not going to sell. Another important part is if a fault was to arise how quickly can the truck be back in service. Customers don't want and can't afford for trucks to be sat about brokendown. In the future the enviormennt will play a big part as well

I would say the colour scheme is more important as a safety aspect but by no means has to be boring!..The first time I saw the newer komatsu paint scheme i thought the same as randall...what is that!..but having worked around a few now alongside orange trucks I would definitely say their paint works!!..obviously from a safety point of view..it can't have been a marketing decision!

From a service point of view I have always found that it is the quality of the paint that is more important than the colour. Trucks that have good paint jobs will have less dammage caused by the operator because they care more about a nice looking machine rather than some old scratched up piece of junk that they have to drive.
We are required by law to have flashing lights and back up alarms so the colour of the lift does not have as great a difference to the safety of pedestrians.

Operators usually do not care about the color of a forklift. Comfort and ease of handling is very important to them as well as travel speed.

As far as color....the bright colors of forklifts are for safety, so warehouse personnel can easily see the units.

Operators usually do not care about the color of a forklift. Comfort and ease of handling is very important to them as well as travel speed.

As far as color....the bright colors of forklifts are for safety, so warehouse personnel can easily see the units.

Thank you Joseph for such an interesting answer. it will help me. I hope to finish my article next 2 months and I will send my thoughts about the style of forklifts to you by email if you want. thanks again. and HELLO from Russia )

Yulia

Based on the wide variety of colors used to sell automobiles, it is most likely that forklift operators would prefer a different forklift color if they had a choice. The color choice, however, is a management prerogative and should be based not on aesthetics but on high visibility. In an operation with a significant amount of pedestrian traffic, multiple forklift use, interaction with delivery vehicles, or any combination thereof, then safety and the use of a highly visible color should be a key issue.

Most yellows and oranges are highly visible. Red is not as reflective at night or in dim light and poses a problem for some color blind people.

Visibility is reduced when two tone or multiple paint schemes are utilized. In the normal forklift operating environment, the background consists of straight lines (horizontal and vertical). Additional colors tend to camoflauge the silhouette of the forklift causing it to blend into the straight line background. (Compare pictures with work environment backgrounds of solid colored forklifts and multiple colored forklifts.)

I think most forklift colors are determined by the forklift manufacturer's marketing department and have little to do with high visibility. I find the current Crown beige/black color appealing. I give it poor marks, however, for high visibility.

If color is a key component in your paper, you may want to research the following areas:

Google: PSYCHOLOGY OF COLOR

Google: COLOR VISIBILITY

Google: VEHICLE COLORS

Google: VEHICLE COLOR VISIBILITY

Google: HIGH VISIBILITY FORKLIFT COLORS

Google: COLOR BLIND

Google: COLOR BLINDNESS

rodger l:

Thanks for the reference to "100 Years Forklift Trucks". I missed its media release in newsletter #214.

The book can be purchased in Canada, Mexico, and the United States through Systems Material Handling Company (SMHCO) which is a subsidiary of TVH Forklift Parts (Belgium). Google: SMHCO or use the forkliftaction. com business directory for toll free number. Search for: SMH; Category - Parts, Components and Accessories - New & Used.

SMHCO is a wholesale distributor but will sell the book direct. If you have problems with a sales person when ordering the book by phone because you are not a wholesale customer, ask to speak to the Sales Manager.

The book (200 pages) comes in two versions so you will have to specify which version you want to order. One version is Dutch/French and the other version is English/German.

I received my English/German copy today and have already read most of it. I find the book very informative. It definitely is a forklift historical book worth having.