Environment Friendly Cherry Picker Showcases Top Innovation from Company

Nifty lifts Height Rider 17 Hybrid 4x4 beams green on the outside and the inside as well with its environmentally conscious design. The HR17 Hybrid 4x4 work platform boasts a hybrid power system promising zero emissions and maximized utilization.

HR17 is a higher end model of Nifty lift’s range of elevated work platforms, incorporating the company’s most advanced technologies that include intelligent safety features as well as clean and energy efficient hybrid technology. The HR17 work platform showcases more advanced clean energy technology from Nifty lift, which is focused on making equipment that run on battery and diesel. “We've always been known for producing machines that have dual system, bi-energy system, which is battery powered and a diesel engine, so people would use them inside or outside. It is really development of that concept. We want to make it more efficient,” said Roger Bowden, the company’s founder and chairman.

Nifty lift’s hybrid system allows the use of electric power to assist the main diesel engine. This reduces the need for a bigger diesel engine usually required for high-powered operations. Development Director Steve Redding explains, “what we've done with the hybrid system is being able to use a 3-cylinder diesel engine coupled to an electric motor that enables both the use of diesel backed up to get a hybrid power.” The addition of electric power into the hybrid system increases the power availability in the work platform, potentially allowing it to operate 24 hours a day.

HR17’s engine design can be compared to hybrid cars now making a mark in the market. “When it's working on diesel, it will top the batteries up, so just like a hybrid car when it's coasting, it will charge the batteries back up. This actually senses the required power,” said Redding.

Aside from the hybrid system, the HR17 work platform incorporates the latest technological breakthroughs from Nifty lift. HR17, which has 4x4 capability and light-weight design for easier mobility, flaunts Nifty lift’s award-winning safety system dubbed SiOPS or Sustained Involuntary Operation Prevention System.

The HR17 work platform SiOPS safety feature is intelligently designed to prevent accidents when the operator gets trapped between an overhead obstacle and the cage. Bowden sensed the need for this kind of technology. “There's a lot of pressure from the industry. You get a lot of injuries and fatalities with people being crushed between the machine console and overhead obstruction beams and so on,” said Bowden. Industry demands for safer work conditions prompted the company to intensify research and development in this area. “There's been a very strong push for the last 3 years now to the manufacturers, saying, hey guys, you've got to do something about this. So we've gone ahead and produced our own system. We think it's going to help somewhere along the line,” Bowden added.

One Nifty lift customer said "I am thrilled our company is using a product that is environmentally friendly" while another said "It's good to know our staffs are working on quality machinery that is made by a company always looking for safer options."

The HR17 elevated work platform is also fitted with Nifty lift’s Tough Cage technology, lauded for its impressive high impact resistance. Tough Cage is designed to absorb strong force hitting the cage, thanks to its durable composite base bigger cross section steel bars.

http://www.niftylift.com.au