GREENE — The Raymond Corporation is celebrating the company’s continued innovation by commemorating the 65th anniversary of the Raymond Reach-Fork® truck. On Aug. 14, 1951, George Raymond Sr., Raymond’s founder, and Christian Gibson, an engineer at the company, received a U.S. patent for the power-driven narrow aisle material handling truck — better known today as the Raymond® Reach-Fork truck.

The Raymond team sees industry needs and works quickly to address them, often being the first in the industry to develop innovations that change warehousing. In the 1940s, a grocery consultant brought a problem to Raymond’s attention. The consultant recognized that wide aisle warehousing was costing American companies millions of dollars, and George Raymond Sr. had the vision to develop the narrow aisle concept. This warehousing idea led to the design of Raymond’s narrow aisle vehicle that maneuvered in aisles less than 7 feet wide and retrieved and put away pallets two tiers high. The vehicle preserves its gravitational integrity by straddling a pallet with baselegs.