New York-headquartered Raymond Corporation is celebrating the 75th anniversary since it successfully patented its Reach-Fork Truck, an innovation it says helped transform warehouse operations and establish the narrow aisle concept as an industry standard.

Established in 1922, Raymond Corporation was challenged in the 1940s by a grocery industry consultant to solve the issue of warehouses needing wide aisles and significant floor space for product storage, in part because of the space needed by forklifts to manoeuvre.

Raymond Corporation explains founder, George Raymond Senior, recognised an opportunity to help customers make better use of their existing warehouse footprint by developing the narrow aisle concept and a lift truck designed specifically for narrow aisle operation.

Following the work of Raymond engineer, Christian D Gibson, on August 14, 1951, Gibson and Raymond Snr were granted a US patent for a power-driven narrow aisle material handling truck - the foundation for the Raymond Reach-Fork Truck. 

“The design enabled operators to manoeuvre in aisles less than 7 ft. (2.13m) wide and stack pallets multiple tiers high, helping customers increase storage density, maximise vertical space and move more product within their existing footprint,” Raymond Corporation states. 

“The innovation helped transform how warehouses could be designed and operated.”

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of the patent, Raymond Corporation is honouring the innovation, people and ideas which have helped shape the evolution and innovation of the technology.

Shannon Curtis, director of product marketing with Raymond Corporation, says: “Innovation at Raymond has always started with understanding our customers and finding better ways to address their operational challenges”.

“Over the past 75 years, Raymond’s Reach-Fork Truck has continued to evolve into the smart truck of today, incorporating connected technologies, telematics and operator assist technologies that provide greater visibility and intelligence to help operators and operations work more efficiently. 

“As our customers’ needs continue to evolve, we will continue to build on that foundation to help them run better and manage smarter.”

Raymond explains today’s model of its reach truck builds on the original narrow aisle concept with connected technologies designed to help customers optimise and address increasingly complex material handling demands.