Ladies and Gentlemen:

On behalf of all of the individuals who have worked so hard over the years to produce standards for products relating to the material handling industry, the Board of Trustees of the Industrial Truck Standards Development Foundation welcomes you to its website. The Board, as of March 1st 2006, consists of Darrin Drollinger (Association of Equipment Manufacturers), Dennis Graham (Ford), Dale Hupp (Alcoa), Stan Simpson (Kalmar RT), Jim Schell (JTS Inc.), Chris Merther (Industrial Truck Association), and William Montwieler (Industrial Truck Association). ITSDF was incorporated in late 2004 to assume management of standards affecting products used in the material handling market earlier developed by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

As a first step in this process, procedures governing the approval process were established and the American National Standards Institute approved ITSDF as a standards developing organization (SDO). Secondly, each of the members of the ASME B 56 Main Committee was asked to join the ITSDF B56 Main Committee effective on the transferal date of the management from ASME to ITSDF. Thirdly, the ASME B56 standards were drafted as ITSDF B56 standards and sent to the ITSDF Main Committee for affirmation as ITSDF standards. There were no substantive changes in the standards….”ASME” was merely changed to “ITSDF” as appropriate. Simultaneously, ANSI was informed of the process and notified the public in “Standards Action”. The ITSDF B 56 standards were approved by the Main Committee and responses drafted to public inquiries. The B56 standards were all approved by ANSI as reaffirmed and redesignated American National Standards on or before September 19th 2005.

A special note is in order at this point—ITSDF will make its standards available gratis to anyone who wants a copy. Our intention is to secure use of the standards on the widest possible basis. As changes are made in the standards and new editions issued, they will be revised in their entirety. We encourage you to participate in the standards process. Your input will always be welcome.