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Forklift solutions for the automotive & engineering industry

Car plants, component suppliers and engineering workshops share one requirement: materials must reach the right station at the right time so the line never stops. Forklift solutions for automotive & engineering therefore combine several truck types, from heavy-duty forklifts in the steel yard and line-feeding tow tractors to kitting order pickers and automated trucks.

Operating challenges in automotive & engineering

Line feeding to takt: one missing parts box can stop an assembly station, so internal transport must stay stable across shifts.
Heavy, varied goods: steel blanks, sheet coils, castings, dies and long goods such as bars, tubes and profiles.
Special containers: dedicated racks, mesh boxes and model-specific trays, not always standard pallets.
Workshop conditions: metal chips, cutting oil, dust, floors with channels and ramps between halls.
Dense internal traffic: trucks and workers share aisles, so speed and intersections must be controlled.
Continuous shifts: the fleet must stay available; charging or refuelling must not interrupt production.

Which truck for which plant step

Truck group	Suggested STILL models	Place in the plant
Electric counterbalance forklifts	RX 20, RX 60, RXE	Production supply, moving parts between operations, heavy indoor loads
Diesel & LPG forklifts	RX 70, RCD	Steel yards, blanks, heavy dies outdoors
Reach trucks	FM-X, FM-4W	High-rack component stores, long goods
Stackers	EXV, EXV-CB, EXD	Buffer stores beside machines, dedicated component racks
Electric & hand pallet trucks	EXH 25-30, EXH-S, HPS/HPT	Horizontal transport of heavy blanks, ramps, repair shops
Order pickers	OPX, OPX iGo neo, OPX-L, EK-X	Kitting component sets, after-sales parts stores
Tow tractors & platform trucks	LTX 20, LTX 50, LTX 70, LXW	Tugger trains for line feeding, links between halls
iGo automated trucks	AXV, EXV-CB iGo, EXV iGo, FM-X iGo, AXL	Automated material supply and removal, truck loading

Very narrow aisle (VNA) trucks (MX-X, NXV) suit plants with high-density component or parts stores with narrow aisles and very high racking. See the very narrow aisle trucks category and the very narrow aisle forklift guide if planning such a store.

Process chain and matching trucks

Receiving raw materials

Steel, blanks and bought-in parts arrive by truck. Diesel, LPG or heavy-duty electric forklifts unload in the yard; electric pallet trucks handle pallets over ramps. STILL mentions production supply in mechanical engineering and automotive industries when presenting the RX 20.

Component and buffer stores

Reach trucks store goods in high racking; stackers serve buffer stores beside machine cells, where quantities are small and routes short.

Line feeding

Tugger trains run on routes, delivering many boxes per trip; order pickers prepare component kits per station. Repetitive routes can be handed to automated trucks.