Crown Equipment Corporation

Crown Equipment Corporation is a privately held American manufacturer of powered industrial forklift trucks based in Ohio. The fifth-largest such manufacturer, Crown had $5.29 billion in worldwide sales revenue for fiscal year 2024.[1] The company was founded in 1945.

Based in the small community of New Bremen, Ohio, Crown got its start by first manufacturing temperature controls for coal-burning furnaces and then television antenna rotators. It diversified in several directions before finding its niche in the material handling industry. Its lift trucks are used worldwide in a variety of applications, such as transporting goods through the narrow aisles of warehouses, distribution centers and manufacturing facilities.

Leadership

Carl and Allen Dicke and Carl’s son Jim Dicke founded Crown Controls in 1945. In 1952, when Carl died, 31-year-old Jim Dicke became president. Jim Dicke II was president from 1980 to 2002 and is the current CEO. Jim Dicke III is Crown’s current president.

Manufacturing facilities

Crown manufactures up to 85 percent of the parts used in its lift trucks, producing components ranging from wire harnesses to electric motors. Crown's lift truck manufacturing facilities include over 1500000 sqft in west central Ohio. Crown also has manufacturing facilities in North Carolina,

Crown products and services

Crown manufactures narrow-aisle and very narrow-aisle stacking equipment, narrow-aisle reach trucks, counterbalanced trucks, high-level stockpickers, turret trucks, walkie stackers, work assist vehicles®, hand pallet trucks, powered pallet trucks, rider pallet trucks, and LP gas trucks.

In 1972, Crown introduced its first rider stand-up counterbalanced (RC) truck which featured a side stance position that allowed the driver, standing sideways, to see both forward and backward by turning his head. Prior to the Crown RC Series, operators who wished to travel in reverse had to operate the controls from behind their backs.

In 1980, Crown introduced its RR Series rider reach trucks, designed for the narrow aisles of warehouses and distribution centers. The RR truck won the “Design of the Decade” award from the Industrial Designers Society of America in 1990.[4] Crown’s TSP 6000 Series (Turret Stockpicker), which enables warehouse storage on shelves dozens of feet above the floor, won 2007 international “Best of the Best” Red dot design award. The TSP 6000 also received a Silver IDEA Award from the Industrial Designers Society of America, the GOOD DESIGN Award from the Chicago and Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and the iF product design award from the International Forum Design in Hanover, Germany (photo by Thomas.net industrial newsroom).

Crown’s ST/SX 3000 Stacker Series received a Gold IDEA Award in 2007,[5] presented by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). The X10 handle, which is also used on other Crown products, won a GOOD DESIGN award from the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design in 2004.

Crown's Wave Work Assist Vehicle®, brought to market in the late 1990s, is designed to transport, put away or retrieve loads, replacing handcarts, rolling ladders and warehouse ladders in both warehouses and manufacturing, maintenance and retail facilities. The Crown Wave won a Red Dot Design award for High Quality Design in 2000 and received a Gold IDEA Award from the Industrial Designers Society of America ( or http://www.docstoc.com/docs/39995846/Gold-Industrial-Design-Excellence-Award-(IDEA)-Winners-1995-1999) and the GOOD DESIGN Award from the Chicago and Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design in 1999 (http://www.crown.com/usa/about/awards_1990.html).

Early history

The company traces its evolution to the 1920s, when it manufactured and sold temperature controls for coal-burning furnaces as the Pioneer Heat Regulator Company. That market disappeared as the nation turned to gas heat. In 1945, the company was changing focus and became Crown Controls Corp. In 1949, as a market for television emerged, Crown began producing television antenna rotators. For two decades, starting in the late 1950s, Crown’s survival and growth were supported by subcontract work, manufacturing mechanical and electrical components for private industry (e.g., Baldwin Pianos and IBM) and the U.S. government, especially the military.

Crown entered the material handling industry with niche products in which the major players had no interest. After shipping its first model in 1956, Crown developed several specialty lift trucks, including stockpickers and order pickers for the U.S. government, a hamper-dumper truck for the U.S. Postal Service, and trucks for carrying caskets for funeral parlors.[8] Crown later decided to stop making so many one-of-a-kind trucks and developed two lines of E-Z Lift Trucks: an H series (hand-operated) and a B series (battery-operated). In 1959, when its lift trucks had annual sales of about $50,000, antenna rotators had annual sales of $700,000,[9] but the transition to the lift truck business was under way. Crown stopped manufacturing the rotators in late 2000.

Crown hired Deane Richardson and David B. Smith, of RichardsonSmith, to design a medium-duty hand-controlled pallet truck, which went on the market in 1962. That pallet truck won a design excellence award from the American Iron and Steel Institute in 1965. Good design became part of Crown’s corporate strategy.[10] Crown focused on niche markets, which didn’t affect competitors whose bread and butter were gas trucks and electric rider trucks. In 1970, Levitz, the furniture discounter, placed an order for 67 Crown stockpickers, which got momentum for sales going. That year, Crown joined the Industrial Truck Association and opened a plant in Australia.

type	Private
foundation	1945
location	New Bremen, Ohio, USA
num employees	20,300 worldwide
products	Lift Trucks
revenue	$5.29 billion (2024)
homepage	http://www.crown.com

Crown Equipment Corporation

Leadership

Manufacturing facilities

Crown products and services

Fuel cell development

Hamech

C-5 Series

Training

Early history

External links

References