Little Innovations Can Make a Big Difference

It’s something you don’t even think twice about … until something goes wrong.

A warehouse worker grabs a manual pallet jack and wheels it in front of a pallet that needs to be moved. He throws his clipboard on top of the pallet of materials and starts to pump up the jack. But when he uses the jack to move the pallet, the clipboard falls and important papers are strewn all over the dock.

This scenario isn’t just inconvenient. It’s also dangerous because other workers, such as forklift operators aren’t going to expect to see another worker crawling around the dock floor collecting dropped papers. A forklift could easily come around the corner and … a tragedy could occur.

Small Innovation, Big Improvement

Now Crown Equipment has developed a small innovation that could permanently eliminate this problem and improve the safety of any warehouse or dock that uses manual pallet jacks

Crown’s new Work Assist Load Tray is designed to be used with its PTH 50 Series of hand pallet trucks. It’s a tiny tray that attaches to the manual pallet truck and can hold paperwork, tools, and boxes at an ergonomically correct height.

Now workers use hand pallet trucks won’t have to worry about losing clipboards, paperwork, tools, or other important work-related supplies while moving pallets manually. The Work Assist Load Tray can keep the supplies safe so they can maintain a faster work pace during stock handling jobs.

Plus, the location of the tray is optimized so that workers have to bend less frequently, improving operator efficiency.

Factory Installed

The optional Work Assist Load Tray comes already installed on new some new PTH 50 hand trucks with 27-inch forks. It’s also available as a kit containing two bins that can easily be attached to both new and existing manual pallet jacks.

The load tray comes with a mounting system that includes additional mounting points for many other accessories from Crown’s Work Assist line of  products, including a clip pad, storage pocket, shrink wrap holder, and cup holder — allowing you to trick out your hand pallet jack if you choose!

Born from Necessity

Crown engineers got the idea for the Work Assist Load Tray after visiting job sites where workers were making their own makeshift holders to attach to their manual pallet jacks, according to Steve Harshbarger, Crown’s marketing product manager.

“When visiting material handling sites, we often see operators using secondary picking carts or makeshift storage accessories such as duct tape cup holders,” Harshbarger said in a news release announcing the release of the new product. “The new Work Assist options allow the PTH 50 Series to bridge the gap between pallet truck and work cart, giving operators smart storage solutions that can be customized to their needs.”

Work Assist accessories include clip pads, shrink wrap holders, cup holders, storage pockets, and Crown’s RAM Mounting System, which protect electronic devices such a mobile tablets through the use of rubber ball and socket design that isolates shock and vibration up to 50G of shock.