Basic Types of Material Handling Equipment

broken image

Material handling equipment is basically mechanical equipment utilized for the safe transportation, processing, handling, storage and protection of various materials, products and goods during the process of production, distribution, consumption and disposal within a manufacturing operation. This equipment has various application in all the different phases of the production, from design and concept to execution and cleanup. The most common type of material handling equipment includes material handling trucks, material handling machinery and material handling machines. All these can be divided further into different types such as transportation trucks, material handling equipment for storage, material handling equipment for transportation, material handling equipment for construction purposes and material handling equipment for demolition.

Towing and Handling: One of the most important types of material handling equipment is the towing machine which is mainly used to transport and handle material within a production facility. This means that the machine is used to raise and place the material securely on the ground. Other common towing unit load types are the bucket truck, boom truck, forklift, drag chain, dolly, pallet, skid and backhoe. In some instances, other specialized units may also be used such as dump trucks, wire mesh, drag, stand and lift. Generally, the bucket truck is considered to be the most common unit load type.

Material Handling: Another important type of material handling equipment is the conveyor system which is mainly used for the conveyancing of materials within a production or distribution plant. Conveyor systems include the roller conveyor, bucket conveyor, vertical conveyor, wire mesh network and multi-media conveyor systems. Among these, the roller conveyor is considered to be the most important one because it is capable of handling heavy materials and it has the ability to transfer large volumes of materials in a shorter time. Bucket conveyors are generally used when the materials to be conveyed must be available in bulk or when the distance between two locations is too long to allow smooth conveyance. Meanwhile, the vertical conveyor can be used when the materials need to be moved in a horizontal manner. The multi-media conveyor system is very useful when high-volume packaging or assembly needs to take place because it is capable of shipping or moving multiple items at a time. Read more about Shannahan Crane & Hoist.

Material Handling: On the other hand, material handling equipment also includes road carriers, dock equipment, transport trucks, construction equipment, storage building and forklifts. Road carriers are used to bring materials from one area to another area. Usually, road carriers have open roofs that allow good ventilation. Dock equipment, on the other hand, is used to move finished products from a manufacturing plant to a distribution warehouse. As for storage building, it is used to hold raw materials as well as finished goods.

Material Handling: There are various types of material handling equipment that are used when the handling of materials needs to take place in an organized manner. These include material handling cranes, forklifts, scissor lifts and pallet trucks. In addition to this, there are also mobile material handling equipment that can be used when there is a need to transport materials from one area to another.

Mobile Material Handling: One very important type of material handling equipment includes forklifts and mobile pallet jacks. Forklifts are used to transport both light and heavy materials from one area to another. Most forklifts have a forklift attachment that can be used to transfer both light and heavy materials. Meanwhile, mobile pallet jacks are used in order to pick up pallets of materials. When the job of picking up a single pallet is complete, the jacks will rotate to another location in order to make another pickup of another pallet. See here for more details.