Our focus has always been to design and produce warehouse and materials handling products that are both cost effective and at the very leading edge of our industry. From the 1960’s our chairman/designer Freddy Brown has been at the forefront of warehouse equipment design. As a company our 'affordable narrow aisle' machines such as the Retreva and Easistak were extremely popular and set the tone for our commitment to cost effective very narrow aisle (VNA) storage. Freddy Brown’s ManRiser product range was the worlds first combined order picker/pallet placer and lead the market for over 20 years. This was then built under licence with and for Toyota, Jungheinrich and BT.

Today Bendi has reshaped the materials handling market by offering versatile very narrow aisle forklift trucks. For the last 20 years the Bendi has developed from being a niche product to one that sells in the same numbers as conventional reach trucks and has dwarfed the VNA market that it set out to replace.

Buying any forklift truck represents a large investment, one which you want to protect, so our service and parts operations are something that we're proud of, for the following reasons:

• Trained Bendi engineers guaranteed to be with you in under four hours.

• Our reaction times to breakdowns are among the industry's best,specialising only in Bendi's also means an industry leading first time fix rate.

• Midlands-based manufacturing and parts holding is supported by strategic regional spares stores and engineers van stock

• Web-based management software can be configured for larger fleets of machines, enabling tracking of service, maintenance and breakdown costs

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Translift Bendi offer several types and maintenance agreements tailored to suit individual needs. From simple breakdown cover, through preventative servicing to full maintenance contracts - we can keep you operating.

Being the foremost authority on articulated forklift trucks brings many benefits, one of which is our extensive hire fleet. Because of this, we're in the ideal position to offer:

• Modern fleet, with clean, well-maintained equipment

• Short, medium and long-term hire.

• Specification matching with capacity and lift height to suit your application

• Short delivery times

• Competitive rates, with a choice of maintenance options.

So if your productivity needs a boost, your fleet is flagging or you are curious about Bendi,

why not give us a try?

The articulated truck is not a new concept and in fact has been around for several decades, albeit not in the form that the current market place enjoys. During the 1940's US company Baker produced a machine that articulated to 45 degrees with the aim of reducing the stacking aisle width. Pallets were stacked in a chevron style to assist in speed and to achieve these smaller aisles.

In the early 1950's Tow motor (later Caterpillar) developed a machine to rotate the load a full 90 degrees much in the same way as modern articulated trucks. However, the truck retained all other counterbalance design characteristics so it required two rotating hydraulic support legs that were activated when stacking on either side of the truck. The “Narrow Aisle Stack” was a relatively successful machine as it facilitated 6' aisles. Linde and Still were amongst others that had filed patents on articulated machines.

Freddy Brown served as an apprentice at Lansing Bagnall whilst he attained his Master’s degree at Cranfield. His thesis was on space saving in warehouses which transformed into a life’s work.

Freddy had seen the development of the trilateral stacking head for narrow aisle equipment and it provoked the idea for the operator to be able to travel up with the pallet to see what he was doing and also pick orders at height. In the late 1960’s Freddy designed the worlds first man up order picker and pallet placer which allowed the operator to hand pick at height or take or replace a full pallet.

In the 1970’s a new design of man down narrow aisle machine was debuted on nation TV and went on to change that market place too. Frustrated by the limitations of turret trucks to achieve better aisle performance in the early 1980’s our Chairman took inspiration from the hand pallet truck and approached the problem from a different angle. He found that by reversing the triangle of stability and changing the weight distribution (a principle that was almost unused in forklifts) he would solve the issue that had long eluded earlier attempts of articulating a truck. This made the Bendi a truly versatile replacement for conventional counterbalance and reach trucks. Then, with later developments, it would equal and eventually supersede the capabilities of traditional VNA machines. For the last 28 years Bendi has lead the warehouse revolution. For the first 10 years the Bendi was the lone articulated truck and in 1992 when the first competitor appeared the Bendi had already moved on and has continued to advance which is why Bendi has continued to remain the best selling articulated fork lift truck  in every region of the world.

Huge space saving advantages, coupled with a price comparable with contemporary reach trucks, saw the Bendi achieve considerable sales success in its first few years. During this period, we saw an increasing acceptance and understanding of the concept of a single articulated truck performing two or even three distinct roles, also adding to the popularity of the Bendi. However, designer Freddy Brown saw opportunities for further enhancements to the design which would improve ease of operation and stability and over the past two decades Bendi have received numerous coveted awards

Bendi have a continuous development programme and new concepts, innovations and models are currently been evolved.

Training is something that is a must in all manual handling operations. Staff that are correctly trained are more confident with equipment, more productive and less likely to make costly mistakes involving heavy plant and stock. Adequate training and supervision is also a requirement of UK Health and Safety law, so it makes sense to protect both your business and investment and organise training for operators.

We recommend that an operator training course from Bendi Driver Training (BDT) is taken by all your staff that may be required to drive our equipment. Operator training courses from BDT are varied to suit all needs.

• 2-day conversion course for three experienced operators, already holding a valid license for any other type of forklift truck.

• 1-day conversion course for a single experienced operator, already holding a valid license for any other type of forklift truck.

• 3-day basic training course for a single novice driver, with little or no warehouse experience and forklift truck driving ability.

• 5-day basic trraining course for three novice drivers, with little or no warehouse experience and forklift truck driving ability.

BDT also offer Supervisor's Health and Safety awareness seminars, refresher tests and full course for other types of forklift trucks, including Reach, Counterbalance, VNA and Rough Terrain.

, www.bendi-flt.co.uk