ERD 220i electric pallet truck wins IFOY: “Special Vehicle of the Year 2022”
Jury: new standards for a safe, optimally protected and yet super-compact electric pallet truck Award confirms Jungheinrich’s position as an innovation leader
Jungheinrich’s ERD 220i won the IFOY Award in Munich (Germany) recently. With its unique combination of compactness, safety and ergonomics, the electric pallet truck impressed the jury and successfully beat the competition in the category “Special Vehicle”. The IFOY award is already the second award for the ERD 220i, which has been distinguished as “Best of the Best” with the Red Dot Design Award in 2021.
The international jury selected Jungheinrich’s ride-on pallet truck ERD 220i as the best new release in this market segment. “Working with pallet trucks is no longer a compromise between safety, compactness, and ergonomics. With the new ERD 220i, Jungheinrich sets new standards for a safe, optimally protected and yet super-compact electric pallet truck. The performance is first class and challenges the competition.”
For Christian Erlach, Member of the Board of Management for Sales at Jungheinrich, the award confirms Jungheinrich’s innovative strength: “Winning the IFOY Award for the ERD 220i is an enormous confirmation of our work,” he said. “Jungheinrich trucks offer the right answer to the requirements of the warehouse of the future. With this self-image, we create innovations. The IFOY Award is proof of that and huge praise for our entire team, of which I am particularly proud.”
Triad of compactness, safety and ergonomics
Instead of installing a large battery between the platform and the forks, as has been the case in the past, Jungheinrich has used two compact lithium-ion battery modules of 130 ampere-hours each in the ERD 220i, which are integrated within the truck chassis. The removal of the battery tray offers significant benefits in the truck performance: the ERD 220i is more than 300 millimetres shorter than its predecessor, which results in a space reduction of approximately 25 per cent.
The compact dimensions make the electric pallet truck, which is designed for flexible use in handling warehouses and for loading and unloading trucks, particularly versatile and agile to drive. The turning radius of 1,985 millimetres enables precise manoeuvring in confined spaces and allows for new concepts in future warehouse planning. The vehicle requires less space in the aisles, so the usable area can be increased accordingly. In this way, customers can create more storage space on the same warehouse surface.
In addition, Jungheinrich has enhanced the weight distribution of the ERD 220i in favour of the driving parameters, which is evident in a powerful acceleration and enables driving speeds of up to 14 kilometres per hour. Because of the space saved, the truck can be offered in two spacious platform versions without having to make any relevant sacrifices in compactness and agility. Both platforms have fixed lateral protection panels on three sides and allow for safe driving and comfortable standing.
Thanks to its new lift mast version, the ERD 220i can be used even more broadly and for stacking in addition to loading and unloading. A new triple lift mast with 3,760 millimetres offers by far the highest platform height of a truck in this segment. At the same time, the height of the lift mast is made so compact that the truck can be used problem-free in the truck trailer. In addition, the ERD 220i can be used as a double-decker by raising the support arm lift and can transport two pallets on top of each other, which offers significant efficiency gains, especially when loading and unloading trucks.
“The ERD 220i is more compact, comfortable and safer than all other forklift trucks in its class. The ERD 220i is redefining the triad of agility, safety and ergonomics with the new battery concept. It makes no compromises and is therefore the forklift truck our customers have been searching for for a long time,” explained Torben Sell, responsible product manager at Jungheinrich. The ERD 220i with integrated lithium-ion battery is part of the Jungheinrich POWERLiNE and, like all POWERLiNE models, is CO2-neutral until it is delivered to the customer.
About the IFOY Award
The IFOY Award (“International Intralogistics and Forklift Truck of the Year”) stands for efficiency and innovation and, due to its technical expertise, is considered the leading innovation prize in intralogistics. An independent jury of leading international expert journalists selects the winners based on a three-stage IFOY audit. In addition to a neutral IFOY test, this also includes the IFOY Innovation Check, which is carried out by specialists from the Fraunhofer IML, the University of Dresden, the Technical University of Munich and the Fraunhofer IPA.
The IFOY Award, which is under the patronage of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, is sponsored by the Materials Handling and Intralogistics Association and the Robotics + Automation Association within the VDMA. With now a total of eleven wins since 2013, Jungheinrich is among the best list of IFOY winners.