Material Handling Equipment
Description
Material handling equipment is pivotal to handle operations such as storage, control, movement, loading and unloading of materials, goods, and products of any form. This is done by manual effort, power activated machineries or by gravity. Material handling equipment include all supporting structures, auxiliary equipment, mobile equipment, and devices that are used to lift, hoist, transport, move or position persons or materials. Material handling equipment is an integral part of industrial processes like planning, manufacturing or production, dispatch, and distribution of the product.
Types
Material handling equipment is generally categorized as follows:
Storage and handling equipment includes the following:
Pallets
Pallet racks
Pallet trucks
Pallet jacks
Pallet conveyors
Pallet shelving
Engineered systems include the following:
Industrial trucks include the following:
Bulk material handling equipment includes the following:
Stackers
Bucket elevators
Reclaimers
Hoppers
Diverters
They are classified based on the material path as follows:
Fixed path equipment includes elevator, chutes, and wire guided AGV
Variable path equipment includes free range AGV, trolley, and trucks
Specifications
Specifications and considerations required while selecting an industrial material handling equipment are listed below:
Load and capacity of the equipment should be considered while selecting industrial conveyors
Stroke, fuel type, tire type, and lift capacity are the most important parameters that has to be specified while buying forklifts
Dimensions and materials of the equipments are the most important considerations while choosing shelves and racks
Advantages
The advantages of using material handling equipment are listed below:
Reduces material transportation time
Reduces congestion, bottlenecks and eliminates any interference while transportation
Reduces manpower
Decreases productivity time
Lessens damage to material
Provides safe and easy transportation of material
Can carry heavy materials or products
Applications
Material handling equipment has a broad range of applications in manufacturing industries for easier and safer transportation of materials and products, thus increasing productivity.