Raymond Celebrates Patent Milestone

The Raymond Corporation is celebrating its long-standing commitment to customer-centric innovations by commemorating the 75th anniversary of the patent of its Reach-Fork® Truck, an invention that helped transform warehouse operations and established the narrow aisle concept as an industry standard.

To mark the milestone, Raymond specially wrapped a Reach-Fork Truck. The company is also honoring the innovation and the people and ideas that have helped shape the evolution of the truck technology.

“Innovation at Raymond has always started with understanding our customers and finding better ways to address their operational challenges,” said Shannon Curtis, director of product marketing, The Raymond Corporation.

“Over the past 75 years, Raymond’s Reach-Fork Truck has continued to evolve into the smart truck of today, incorporating connected technologies, telematics and operator assist technologies that provide greater visibility and intelligence to help operators and operations work more efficiently. As our customers’ needs continue to evolve, we will continue to build on that foundation to help them run better and manage smarter.”

In the 1940s, a grocery industry consultant brought one such challenge to the company’s attention: Wide aisle warehousing required significant floor space for lift truck travel, limiting the space available for product storage. Raymond founder, George Raymond Sr., recognized an opportunity to help customers make better use of their existing warehouse footprint by developing the narrow aisle concept and a lift truck designed specifically for narrow aisle operation.

That vision became a reality through the work of Raymond engineer Christian D. Gibson. On Aug. 14, 1951, Raymond Sr. and Gibson were granted a U.S. patent for a power-driven narrow aisle material handling truck, an innovation that became the foundation for the Raymond® Reach-Fork Truck. The design enabled operators to maneuver in aisles less than 7 feet wide and stack pallets multiple tiers high, helping customers increase storage density, maximize vertical space and move more product within their existing footprint. The innovation helped transform how warehouses could be designed and operated.

Seventy-five years later, the same focus on solving customer challenges continues to shape the evolution of Raymond’s Reach-Fork trucks. Today’s models build on the original narrow aisle concept with connected technologies designed to help customers optimize and address increasingly complex material handling demands.

The Raymond Corporation is commemorating the 75th anniversary of the patent of its Reach-Fork® Truck, an invention that helped transform warehouse operations and established the narrow aisle concept as an industry standard.

Raymond reach trucks can be equipped with Raymond’s iWAREHOUSE® telematics portfolio, a scalable telematics and warehouse optimization suite. It tracks, records and reports data on industrial lift trucks, operators and batteries across mixed fleets to improve productivity — helping customers gain greater visibility to optimize, connect and automate operations.

Raymond will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Reach-Fork Truck throughout the year, with opportunities for associates, customers and the broader community to celebrate the people, innovation and legacy behind this industry-changing invention.