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Material handling equipment is all the machinery and tools that move products and materials around your manufacturing facility. There are many types of equipment available, ranging from manual lifting systems to engineered systems for transporting loads.
Your process, environment and application will determine the type of equipment that you need. Common examples include:
Conveyors
Conveyors, which are mechanical equipment pieces that move items from one place to another in a facility, are used. They are used to streamline production, reduce labor requirements, and increase safety. They are particularly useful in industries like paper, lumber and case packing.
Consider the following when choosing the right sortation conveyor systems: How much volume will you need to move per hour? Do you have to make 90-degree turnings? Will your conveyor system be loading or unloading barges or railcars? Are you creating stockpiles of materials on your own site? These factors will determine the conveyor width and belt speed that your business needs.
There are many different types of conveyors available, depending on what you need.
Roller conveyors are a common choice for businesses that require straight picking and dropping points. These conveyors are built on aluminum or stainless steel beams, with low friction slide rails and plastic multi-flexing chain guides. These conveyors can be designed to work around obstacles and keep production lines running smoothly.
Screw conveyors can be used to transport materials or mixed ingredients that require high output. The screw is a helical one that rotates in a tube sealed with a lid, tumbling ingredients.
Forklifts
Material handling equipment is used to lift and move large quantities of goods in commercial settings, such as warehouses and manufacturing centers. It can also be used for storage and transportation yards. Essentially, it helps move and organize materials in these types of industrial environments to optimize processes, ensure workplace safety and help reduce waste.
Forklifts play a major role in material handling. Forklifts are motorized trucks that have a fork at the front and a counterbalance at the back. They also have a cab where the operator sits. They can be equipped with a variety of different attachments to handle various tasks depending on the environment and application.
Pallet jacks are the simplest forklifts. They are used to move and lift pallets of material across short distances in a warehouse. They’re typically manual rather than electrical and don’t get as high off of the ground as other models.
Other forklifts are walkie-stackers, which look similar to pallet jacks. However, they have a longer mast that allows the forklift to lift and move materials much higher off the ground. Order pickers, another popular forklift model, are used to lift individual items from elevated shelving and lower them down to the ground.
Pallet Trucks
A pallet truck, also known as a pump truck or a pallet jack, is a wheeled trolley used to lift and transport loads. The truck’s forks are tapered and fit under the load, allowing it to be raised or lowered by a single worker.
Unlike forklifts, these machines are smaller, making them easy to maneuver in narrow aisles and other small spaces. These machines can still transport heavy loads but their compact chassis allows for them to travel quickly from one storage area to another without blocking traffic.
Most pallet trucks are equipped with a number of ergonomic features designed to reduce operator fatigue and injury. Linde, for example, offers protective platforms that separate the drive wheels from the chassis to prevent jarring movement that can damage the muscular-skeletal system. Other options include polyurethane load-bearing wheel to reduce vibrations and resist wear, adjustable steering controls that ensure comfort and efficiency and integrated weight systems for precise loads.
To ensure you choose the best pallet truck for your company, you should evaluate your workspace. Identify the most common lifting, loading, and unloading activities. Once you know the types of materials you will be handling and how many pallets you will need to move in a day, you can start to look for suitable equipment.
Flow Carts
Industrial carts can be used to transport products, components and goods in and out of warehouses and manufacturing facilities. They also improve production efficiency and streamline material handling processes by eliminating bottlenecks.
These carts are designed to fit a specific manufacturing process or workflow. This helps ensure that they will work with existing equipment and can be scaled as your business grows. They also allow for standardized work, which eliminates inefficient and time-consuming manual labor and can result in significant cost savings.
Flow carts can be color-coded according to your lean or Kaizen process. They can be equipped to lift heavy materials and reduce fatigue for workers. Material handling equipment of this type can also be configured to a tugger-cart train, so that logistics can deliver parts directly to production operators without using forklifts or Pallet Jacks.
Tugger carts are battery-powered or motorized solutions that can pull multiple heavy carts linked together. They are often used in the rail, aerospace, and automotive industries to move passenger luggage, shipments, and even planes. These are also great for replenishing line-side flow racks requiring production components or moving WIP (Work In Progress) carts between two different processes. These carts can include a hopper for holding parts until needed, or custom laser-cut letters to indicate the work center, WIP status or part type.
