The award-winning Crown turret stockpicker.

Crown Equipment Corp has won a silver industrial design excellence award (IDEA) for its TSP 6000 turret stockpicker.

In contrast to conventional forklifts, the operator-up truck can operate in very narrow aisles of high-throughput warehouses and handle heavy loads up to 38 feet (11.4 metres) off the ground.

Crown conducted two years of research and three years of product development before introducing the TSP 6000 in August 2005. Pilot trials began two months earlier. The suggested price range is USD57,000-USD80,000.

Steve Pulskamp, of Crown, New Bremen, OH; Bob Henshaw, of Formation Design Group Inc, Atlanta, GA; and Steve Casey, of Ergonomic Systems Design Inc, Santa Barbara, CA, received IDEA credits. Formation assisted in developing multitask controls and arm rests and Ergonomic provided some human factor expertise.

Crown originated the concept of an operator-up turret truck in the 1980s and designed the reconfigured TSP 6000 to address changes over the past decade in warehouse environments. The truck offers front-facing and side-facing seat positions, previously available only in separate truck models.

The Industrial Designers' Society of America, based in Dulles, VA, and BusinessWeek magazine co-sponsored the IDEA competition, which drew 1,395 entries from 19 countries.

In 2004 Crown won a silver IDEA for its PE 4000 series end-control pallet truck (Forkliftaction.com News #165). It won gold in 2003 for its FC 4000 four-wheel sit-down counterbalanced electric truck and in 1999 for its Wave Work assist vehicle (Forkliftaction.com News #115).