Midlands firms create ‘world’s biggest forklift’

MIDLANDS businesses have been involved in the creation of one of the world’s biggest forklift trucks to help a company move its sizeable products.

Equipment consultant HFT Forklifts Ltd has supplied a 25 tonne, 5x5x3 metre, four-directional forklift, to its client BladeRoom, in a deal worth £250,000.  

BladeRoom, based in Gloucestershire, needs the mighty forklift to move into position its modular data centres, which are four metres high and weigh 18 tonnes each.

HFT had already been supplying BladeRoom with forklifts, but it was agreed moving the data centres required a bigger machine.

“We looked at other options like overhead gantry cranes and large counterbalanced trucks but they would have been inflexible and impractical for the building and take up too much room,” said Kevin Heath of HFT.

“The versatility of 4-directional trucks was ideal, but there was nothing on the market that could have handled a job of this size.”

HFT overcame the issue by forming a four-way partnership with Birmingham-based machinery distributor Abex Ltd, Irish manufacturer Combilift which made the forklift, itself and its client.

The four parties then devised a solution which has resulted in the creation of what they believe is the world’s biggest diesel powered forklift truck.

“The ideal solution from our point of view was a machine that could move modules in the same way as we move pallets – but on a much larger scale,” said BladeRoom’s CEO Paul Rogers.  

“And thanks to the excellent customer service from HFT, Abex and Combilift, that’s exactly what we will have achieved.”