IFOY Award 2016: Jungheinrich Has Three Vehicles in Final Round

Just a few weeks before the final adjudication session for the International Forklift Truck of the Year (IFOY AWARD) 2016, nominations have been announced: Jungheinrich was able to persuade the jury with all three of its entries, making it the biggest favourite in the competition for this coveted industry prize, being offered this year for the first time in five categories.

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“All in all, 16 companies submitted entries this year and put forward an extremely wide range of products for the award. This total of 13 vehicles and solutions are the cream of the crop in terms of innovation“, reported Anita Würmser, chairperson of the IFOY jury.

Sole Manufacturer to Receive Two Warehouse Truck Nominations

In the category of “Warehouse Truck - Highlifters“, Jungheinrich is represented in the final round of the intralogistics "Oscars" with its totally new EKX 516 electric order picker/trilateral forklift truck. Featuring a lightweight design, vibration damping, the latest synchronous reluctance motor technology and top performance parameters, this man-up narrow aisle stacker sets a new benchmark, lifting 1.6 tons to a height of 17.5 metres at a top lifting speed of 0.6 m/s, with 30 percent higher driving speeds - including on uneven floors. In addition the truck achieves annual savings of 7,000 euros thanks to its 2Shift1Charge battery guarantee.

Jungheinrich received an additional nomination in the Warehouse Truck - “Lowlifters“ category for its optimised EZS 5100 tugger train solution with GTE trailers. The EZS 5100 has a towing capacity of ten tons and speeds of up to 18 km/h, making it a high-performance tugger train for a wide range of applications. The GTE 312 trailer's electrohydraulic auto-lift function lifts loads of up to 1.6 tons cleanly and swiftly, ensuring that each trailer can be individually controlled. The middle axle guarantees optimum directional stability, even for long trains navigating in tight spaces.

Jury Also Nominates Special Vehicles from Jungheinrich

The first nomination in the new IFOY “Special Vehicles“ category goes to the Jungheinrich EJQ 325. The Dortmund-based Deutsche Bahn rail company presented the Jungheinrich special-build engineers with a special challenge: the development and realisation of a device for changing the IC/ICE wheel sets. The task definition included precision load pickup and individual loading of the ICE wheel sets as well as of the wheel set changer, each weighing 2.5 tons, over a lift height of 550 millimetres. The biggest challenge involved the longitudinal and traverse travel with a 2.4 metre long load in a work aisle with a width of just 2.9 metres.

Final Decision Following IFOY Tests and IFOY Innovation Checks

Which trucks are ultimately chosen for the IFOY Award 2016 will depend in large measure on the results of the IFOY Test and IFOY Innovation Check, which all nominated trucks will have to undergo over a one-week period in February on the exhibition grounds in Hannover. Performed by a team of experienced and independent testers, the IFOY Test measures the hard data and compares it with the data for rival machines. The IFOY Innovation Check prepared by the specialists from the Dortmund-based Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics (IML) as well as the Chair of Machine Elements and Technical Logistics at the Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg, focuses solely on innovations and the degree of innovation relative to the market. In addition, the jury members will drive and test all nominated vehicles themselves.

Among other things, the IFOY Award assesses innovative value, engineering, design, ergonomics, handling, safety, cost effectiveness and sustainability. The key criteria for intralogistics solutions include novel/innovative quality, customer benefit, sustainability and marketability of the solution. The winner in each category is chosen by a jury made up of 25 internationally known trade journalists from the leading logistics media in 16 countries around the globe. The IFOY Award will be presented on May 31 at the CeMAT opening ceremony in Hannover.