Materials handling equipment essentials

The manufacture and delivery of products require some crucial pieces of material handling equipment. Transportation of heavy and dangerous items can't be done by hand. Instead, these materials are handled by personnel with some technological aid. Having the right kind of equipment allows workers to work more efficiently on the factory or warehouse floor. Injuries are minimized and bottom lines are improved. Here are some of the most important pieces of equipment for dealing with material handling.

Racks

If you want to store an item while it awaits its next mode of transportation, you can’t have it cluttering up the work floor. There is only a limited amount of horizontal space available at every warehouse or production facility. The use of racks has proven to be the most effective way to save space in storage handling facilities.
Their design is as simple as their purpose, but there are still several variations that cater to different areas of storage. You can find mobile versions such as drive-through and push-back racks, which are useful for transporting goods and equipment along short distances within the facility. Some are designed with unusual shapes in mind, in order to prevent them from slipping or requiring their own special storage.

Pallet jacks

Navigating smaller sized warehouses can be difficult for personnel. Sometimes, you are unable to use a forklift at certain junctions and you might find the weight of an item to be too much for manual transport. For these situations, pallet jacks can be of assistance.
They’re mobile pieces of equipment that allow workers to load and unload things that don’t require mechanized assistance. Unloading pallets and individual boxes manually would take time that would be better spent in other areas of the work floor.
They are simple enough that using them doesn’t require any kind of additional training. Worker safety Worker safety isn’t an issue because there are very few moving parts on the pallet jack. Despite their simplicity, some models are able to lift upwards to two and a half tons.

Conveyor belts

Conveyor belts are the most efficient way to transport a large number of materials over long distances. They take up a lot of room on the work floor, but their usefulness outweighs the loss of space.
They can move materials both horizontally and vertically, which makes them ideal for facilities with multiple levels of storage. In addition to this, they can also often switch the direction of transport, in case something needs to be fixed. Material production facilities use them on production lines to help speed up the process.
Large volumes of material and equipment can be moved by a forklift or pallet jack, but this requires a lot more organization than simply putting them on a conveyor belt.
Not only are they efficient when it comes to moving things, but they also allow the facility to save money on manpower and labour costs.

Cabinets

Various pieces of equipment need to be set aside for later transport or usage. Some need specialized containers to be handled properly. Cabinets are a simple and effective tool that is used to meet this demand.
There are many variations of cabinets that are suited for different types of material storage. For material that is more hazardous, you have safety cabinets with warning labels. Certain suppliers like Sitecraft have different classes for protective cabinets, which include protection from flammable and toxic materials. If your storage area has material that might be hazardous, it would be wise to label everything properly in order to prevent accidents and worker injury.

Forklifts

Forklifts are a quintessential element for any warehouse or production facility. They are considered the bread and butter of material lift and transport. Forklifts are extremely versatile pieces of machinery that can handle extremely large weights. Their lifting capacity can exceed tens of thousands of kilograms of weight. This is often more than enough to get even the heaviest equipment up on higher shelves of storage facilities.
Forklifts require quite a bit of safety training. A large number of workplace injuries are attributed to forklifts, due to the fact that they carry such weight over long distances. Very often, these injuries are blamed on lax safety and inadequate training. Sticking to safety protocols leads to a much lower rate of injuries for workers and forklift operators. More intelligent modelsare able to help avoid accidents by using motion detection and diagnostic technology.

Conclusion

Material handling and processing is a labour-intense line of work. Many advanced pieces of equipment have become an integral part of the business and warehouses and production facilities can’t do without them. Heavy weights need to be moved and this can’t be done efficiently by hand. To keep a well-organized facility running, you need to have the necessary tools available for your workers.