The Australian Forklift and Industrial Truck Association (AFITA) exhibited and gave presentations at the Brisbane WHS Show, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre 31 May–1 June 2023. AFITA have been an Industry association Partner of the WHS Show since 2018.
AFITA had two adjoining stands at the Show – a smaller Association Stand and a larger Industry Stand – all exhibiting under the slogan Lifting Forklift Safety.
“Forklifts are an essential part of all transport and manufacturing in Australia, nothing appears on a shelf for sale without having been handled by a forklift” says Steve Takacs, AFITA President.
“Every year in Australia there are workplace deaths and injuries involving forklifts,
“These incidents have a huge financial and social impact on workers, families, businesses and the community”.
“AFITA is working to improve the safe use of forklifts, both for operators and other people on work sites”.
The Industry stand exhibited four forklifts provided by major producers of forklifts in Australian and one attachment supplier. The forklifts on display showed the safety features required to be built into forklifts constructed to the Australian Standard and additional equipment that can be attached to improve operator and pedestrian safety.
The forklift producers exhibiting were Crown Australia, Linde Materials Handling, Mitsubishi and Toyota Materials Handling Australia. The attachment supplier was Cascade Australia.
Safety features included on the machines and equipment exhibited included:
- Sequential interlocking seatbelts that ensure the operator is wearing a seat belt.
- Speed limiters that slow the forklift speed when the load is raised to reduce the potential for tip overs.
- Traction control to reduce skidding on wet surfaces and when changing direction.
- Load leveling systems.
- Fork tynes with included cameras to assist safe load location.
- Fleet management systems that track servicing, and incidents, require and record prestart checklists, limit access to approved operators and track the currency of operator Licences.
- Halo light systems to warn pedestrians that they are entering exclusion zones.
- AI cameras that can differentiate between pedestrians and objects and (when linked to the management system) slow or stop the forklift if there is a likelihood of an accident.
AFITA Industry Stand
As well as the stand displays, AFITA presented at the Knowledge Centre – Fork Truck safety – Innovations and Practice and on the Spotlight Stage- Operating Fork Truck Safely.
Craig Williams ( Clark Equipment ) and Brian Wilson (Cascade Australia) Presenting on the Spotlight Stage
Topics covered included:
- Forklift Safety Features (Requirements of the Australian Standard)
- Operations Safety (Pedestrian separation, safety systems and their issues)
- Licensing Requirements.
- Attachments for Safety and Productivity.
The most common issue seen?
The lack of understanding that forklift attachments must be listed on the machine data plate by the manufacturer of the machine and that the capacity of the machine is the main factor that limits load size, not the attachment capacity.
The AFITA WHS Show team
