The material handling and warehousing industries rely extensively on robust steel profiles, especially for forklift trucks and their diverse range of components. Industrial lift trucks are commonly equipped with standardized hot-rolled heavy-duty profiles, which are used for:
- Forklift mast
- Fork attachments to the carriage
- Fork positioners and side-shifters
- Fork arms flats
The most common hot rolled sections for forklift trucks steel components are:
owever, specific applications within this sector necessitate specialized attachment systems tailored to handle materials efficiently and safely. These custom solutions often have unique requirements and call for tailor-made profiles.
Characteristics and Advantages of Customized Hot Extruded Steel Sections
The following features characterize custom made hot extruded profiles, specifically in the material handling sector but it also applies to other industries:
Complex Geometries
Custom steel profiles are designed to fulfill specific operational requirements that traditional sections do not achieve and thus are usually characterized by complex geometries. As compared to normed hot-rolled sections widely available on the market – such as flat bars, L profiles, C profiles and beams – special steel profiles are created from individual customers’ drawings. Custom hot extruded profiles in particular incorporate intricate contours and configurations, such as undercuts, that optimize functionality in critical applications. The manufacturing process of a tailor-made steel section requires high technical expertise, both in terms of hot extrusion technology experience as well as of advanced CAD software and engineering know-how.
Low Minimum Order Quantities and Prototyping Possibility
Another aspect that differentiates hot extrusion from other hot manufacturing technologies, like hot rolling or forging, is the minimum production quantity needed to be economically viable. The hot extrusion process is cost-effective even at very low MOQ of 500kg or 1 ton as it incurs very low tooling costs. In fact, if so desired by the customer, even a single bar is possible.
This is a great advantage for instance when the customer designs a new model of a specific piece of equipment or machinery and needs prototypes of the new profile to test its performance real-life before moving forward with the mass production and rollout.
Flexible Bar Lengths and Optimized Scrap
Efficient material usage to minimize scrap is a key consideration in producing steel profiles. Minimal material waste can be achieved by producing long bar lengths – a practice that is particularly beneficial for high-volume productions. Montanstahl special profiles can be extruded up to a length of 16m* and can be cut into shorter bars and fixed length as desired by the customer in order to minimize scrap.
*depending on the profile weight and shape
Precise Tolerances
The manufacturing of custom steel profiles demands exacting precision to ensure seamless integration with existing components and systems of the lift truck. Precise tolerances are critical for maximizing performance and ensuring safety during material handling processes.
As compared to hot rolled profiles, hot extruded sections reach narrower tolerances on the geometry (±0,5 mm vs. ±0.8-1 mm) and thus don’t require additional costly processes
Furthermore, Montanstahl is equipped with advanced metrology tools and quality control measures are employed throughout the production process to test and verify compliance with stringent dimensional specifications.
Durable and Reliable Profiles
Custom extruded steel profiles are engineered to withstand the demanding conditions of the material handling and warehousing sector, including heavy loads and extreme stresses.
Given their application, profiles for forklift truck components are normally fairly heavy and sturdy. Montanstahl can extrude medium-to-large profiles (⌀ max 255mm), from heavy-duty profiles (max 120 kg/m) to light sections for applications that don’t require large profiles (min 1.5 kg/m).
Montanstahl Hot Extrusion Expertise
The Montanstahl Group has extensive know-how and experience in hot extruding custom profiles for lift truck attachments and other components. Two companies within the Group – Montanstahl GmbH in Germany and Siderval S.p.A. in Italy – produce and deliver special hot extruded sections for a wide range of applications across the world, including for heavy-duty industrial forklift trucks, high storage & shelving systems and small warehouse vehicles.
These features of extruded profiles – complex geometries, low MOQ, flexible bar lengths to optimize scrap, precise tolerances and durability – can unlock advantages such as to make them the best solution for specific applications in material handling.
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