Forklift turning and braking stability analysis

According to the American OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration Standards) statistics, 62,000 general accidents and 35,000 serious accidents occurred annually among 1 million forklifts in the United States; about 85-100 people died and the direct economic loss was up to $135 million. Forklift accidents accounted for about 11% and the probability of accidents in the whole life of a forklift was up to 90%. In all types of accidents, rollover accidents accounted for the major proportion, about 42%. [1] Rollover accidents are closely related to the instability condition of turning and braking process: for the turning process, especially the sharp turn, forklift is prone to rollover when fully loaded and fork rising to a certain height; rollover can happen during the braking process due to frequent starting, braking, back running, and line point braking deviation.[2]Therefore, we focused on the stable performance of the process during turning and braking, and this included analysis of various braking performances, gravity center stable triangle principle, and controlling strategy based on a variety of sensors. In addition, light forklift was considered as the research object, which only has braking device in the front drive axle; only level road was considered, slope angle excluded.