Monday, November 7, 2016

The Equipment Used In A Material Handling Transportation

By Roger Snyder


Material handling is a type of transportation that is often utilized in most buildings for transportation or movement of materials. It uses different equipment that may either be semi automated, automated or manual and this includes the consideration for storage, control, and protection of the facilities. These processes are being done in the warehousing, consumption, disposal, manufacturing, and distribution.

Material handling is very important in logistics and manufacturing. From time to time, items are being transported through a conveyor or a lift truck or some other types of material handling transportation equipment for warehouses, retail stores, and manufacturing plants. This process is also required to most jobs in production since the operators use this in transporting various goods in industrial settings.

The material handling type of transportation in which the containers will be moved by the workers using their hands when lifting, lowering, carrying, emptying, and filling it up. The only disadvantage of this transportation type is the exposure of workers to some serious physical conditions, thus, making them experience the musculoskeletal disorders and other serious injuries. This involves strains and also sprains to the lower back, upper limbs, and shoulders.

The most common handling type that is being used as an alternative for material manual handling is the semi automated. It is because the human operators will still be needed due to some difficulties in unloading, driving, and loading. These tasks may be very difficult for machines to perform even if there are already some advancements of robotics, sensing, and machine intelligence.

Transportation facilities are used in moving materials from location to location while the positioning materials are used for manipulating materials in only one location. The materials also have its sub categories and these are the conveyors, industrial trucks, and the cranes. There are also manual materials that can be applied without using any equipment.

The conveyors will be used if a material is frequently moved between some specific points in fixed path, and also if there is a sufficient volume flow for justifying a fixed investment for conveyor. Conveyors have different types which include bulk load and unity load and the location may either be on floor, overhead, in floor. Examples of bulk conveyors are troughed belt, screw conveyors, magnetic belt, and bucket.

Cranes will be used for transporting goods loads in a vertical or horizontal variable path in restricted areas. And also, these are used if there is an insufficient volume flow or intermittent flow. Cranes are considered to be more flexible compared to conveyors since the loads are handled with respect based on their weight and shape.

But when compared to industrial trucks, this is less flexible since it only operates in restricted areas. Most of the cranes are utilizing tracks and trolley for the horizontal movement and utilizing hoists for the vertical movement. Types of cranes include bridge, stacker, jib, and gantry cranes.

Industrial trucks are not licensed in traveling on the public roads. Its purpose is moving the materials with variable paths and also when insufficiency in the volume flow is there. Trucks are considered as more flexible than conveyors and cranes because of unrestricted areas.




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