Toyota Industrial Equipment (TIE) has become one of the first manufacturers to offer a battery transfer facility on its full range of electric trucks. First providing customers with the option of battery transfer over ten years ago when it was introduced on the 6FBRE reach truck, now supplies its sideways exit battery transfer on all its electric counterbalanced, reach, pallet and stacker trucks, helping companies to minimise downtime and optimise productivity. The most recent truck to be installed with this feature was the 7FBEF three-wheel forklift.
Toyota equips its trucks with a sideways exit to ensure a simple but fast change-over – averaging 90 seconds depending on the model. This is a dramatic difference from the old method of using overhead equipment to remove the battery. This quick and easy method normally only requires one of person to perform the change-over of batteries when previously it took a minimum of two people to complete the task.
One of the key advantages of specifying battery transfer systems is that the truck is capable of continuous operation. Once a shift is completed the battery is taken to the recharging area where it is replaced with spare battery.
