Handling and lifting equipment spe- cialist Manitou’s independent black-economic empowerment dealer, Dezzo Equipment, recently received an enquiry to supply a local brewery with a forklift designed to be used by a disabled person.

Manitou South Africa, in conjunction with Dezzo Equipment, has converted a Manitou CD25 conventional forklift for use by disabled drivers.

The machine, the first of its kind in South Africa, was on exhibition at the recent Electra Mining Show and attracted significant interest. This machine will be marketed by Dezzo Equipment.

The conventional controls of the forklift, such as the pedals and other hand-operated equipment, have been replaced by a single joystick, which controls all of the forklift’s functions.

“The key requirement for converting a conventional forklift to one suitable for disabled operators, is that it has to be uni- versally accessible, owing to the extremely variable nature of disabled persons’ disabili- ties. We solved the problem by applying a single hydraulic joystick, mounted at a comfortable position on the right-hand armrest,” Manitou’s design/project engineer Jannie Smith explains.

He admits that finding the most appropriate mechanism from which to control all the forklift’s functions presented a challenge, but that he was able to develop a custom design that integrates all the machine’s functions into one central control point.

The modification is similar to that of normal sedan vehicles being converted for disabled drivers. The joystick operates proportional acceleration and braking functions by moving it forwards or backwards.

For left and right steering, the joystick can be moved correspondingly, while a dash- board indicator gives the operator a visual indication of the direction in which the steering wheels are pointing at any given time. This is necessary, Smith explains, owing to a disabled operator being securely strapped to the seat for safety reasons, and being unable to lean sideways to observe the machine wheels.

A further safety feature includes a ‘dead man’s switch’, located at the front of the joystick. The operator has to press this button before the machine responds to any of the commands, and the forklift comes to an abrupt stop should the operator fail to press this button for any reason.

The joystick has a further battery of six buttons, located at its top, with which the operator controls the mast functions. This includes the mast’s lift and lowering, tilting forwards and backwards, and left and right side shifting.

“The beauty of the modification is that it can be adapted to work on almost any earthmoving or industrial machine. In fact, there are already plans to develop the modifications to be supplied in kit form in future,” says Smith.

The prototype modified forklift will be put to work by a large local brewery on a test basis. “We are pleased to have been approached by the client for this unique modification, owing to the client’s wish to give a disabled operator the opportunity to continue with his/her job, instead of being relegated to soft duties in an office,” Dezzo Equipment GM Cindy Smith says.

The forklift contract will include training for two operators. “Operators will have to receive training, owing to the specialised nature of the machine’s controls. We also plan to offer a two-day training course for two operators for every forklift we modify,” she adds.

Further, Manitou South Africa reports that it is in the process of gaining a quality guarantee on the modifications from the South African Bureau of Standards. “We have also been approached by government, which has taken a keen interest in the modifications.

“Further, a number of large mining houses also showed an interest when we exhibited the forklift at the recent Electra Mining exhibition,” Smith concludes.