Nippon Yusoki Co., Ltd.

Dac Engineering Co., Ltd.

Shigeru Hirooka

Shinobu Tanaka

Ikuya Katanaya

Shuichi Maeda

Shigehiro Yamamoto

Koji Orita

Toshihiko Yamaguchi

A reach forklift comprises: a forklift body; left and right straddle arms; a pair of load wheels supported in a steerable manner in the vicinity of front ends of the left and right straddle arms, respectively; driving means for steering the load wheels, the load wheels and the driving means being housed in the straddle arms; a drive wheel disposed in a rear portion of the forklift body; and a steering wheel for steering the drive wheel; steering angle detecting means for detecting steering angles of the left and right load wheels and the drive wheel. Each of the left and right straddle arms comprises: a bracket which rotatably supports a steering shaft, the center of the steering shaft being positioned at an outer position in the width direction of the forklift body, the bracket being fixed to a lower face of the steering shaft, supporting the load wheels at an outer position of the forklift body, and rotatably supporting the center of the load wheel in the width direction of the load wheel, the center of the load wheel being separated from the center of the steering shaft by a predetermined distance; a gear which is fixed to the bracket and formed into a sector shape, the arc portion of the sector gear being directed to the center of the forklift; and a driving gear which engages with the sector gear and is driven by the driving means, the driving gear being positioned in the side of the center of the forklift.

Reach forklift

An optically guided, unmanned, load transporting vehicle, such as a fork-lift truck, includes an electric camera, such as an industrial television camera, and a controller for controlling the automatic running apparatus of the vehicle. Two reflectors are disposed in front of the camera so that the camera receives light from remote and near visual fields. A guide belt laid on floor for guiding the vehicle is formed with various bar codes representing halt, acceleration, deceleration, etc.

Visually guided vehicle

Growing community of inventors

Kyoto, Japan

Shigeru Hirooka