Material Handling Equipment

Equipment Maintenance

Maintenance of an equipment is important because even the simplest equiment can wear out or become damaged. The equipment and the whole range of tools must be inspected regularly and at least quarterly to ensure that they are up to the job.

Therefore regular maintenance is necessary to:

increase the operating life of the equipment
give the maximum economy of operation
make the equipment reliable and safe to use
give everyone making use of the equipment confidence in its performance

Before setting up a proper maintenance programme, we would first need to:

identify and locate each piece of equipment
tag the equipment with number plate
prepare a schedule of maintenance for the operator and for a trained mechanic (for regular mechanical inspection and maintenance)

Misusage of Equipment

First of all it is critical to establish wat is the correct range of duties and loads in order to prevent the misuse of equipment.

To prevent misusage we can:

Paint the safe load limit on the equipment and all boxes
Check the normal pallet loads to ensure that they are below the safe limit of the equipment
Rules of equipment MUST be laid down to ensure that neither man nor equipment are put to undue strain.

Palletizer

So what are palletizers?

They are machines used for placing cartons/boxes on pallets. Specific palletizers are available to handle different kinds of loads such as bags, pails, drums and crates. Usually, most palletizers are designed to handle more than just one kind of load.

3 most common configurations of palletizers:

Low level (for ground level)

High level (through a hopper from above)

Robotic (for fragile products)

Low level and high level palletizers are most suitable when packing and shipping speed is crucial . In both cases, product may be received in a rolling or flowing fashion and continuously transferred to pallets. Robotic palletizers tend to be slower but they are deviced to apply less stress on the material, lessening risk of damage.

Automation

Palletizers are available in automatic and semi-automatic. For fully automatic palletizers, not much operator intervention is required to handle the palletizing process. Semi-automatic palletizers, on the other hand require operators to stack the layers onto pallets without lifting.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Forklifts

Forklifts, a.k.a lift trucks or are powered industrial trucks used to lift and move materials by means of steel forks inserted under the load.
Forklifts are most oftenly used to handle pallets.

Forklift capacity is defined as the maximum load when the load centre of gravity is at a specified distance (load centre) from the heel of the forks.

The 3 basic forklift trucks mast configurations:

single-stage
two-stage (duplex)

three- stage (triplex)

The more stages, the higher the mast can lift, and the lower the closed height of the mast.

Common types of Forklifts:

Counterbalanced Forklift Truck
Mostly used in warehouses and can reach up to 20 feet high.

Reach Truck
Meant for pallets and narrow aisle. Telescoping forks enable drivers to pick up loads and retract them over the outriggers. The heights of reach trucks can reach up to 40 feet high.

Motorized Pallet Truck
These pallet trucks a.k.a walkie-riders are designed for loads smaller than pallets. Operators walk alongside the trucks as they move loads. They are useful for moving loads in small areas over long distances. They elevate both load and operator to the necessary height, which can reach up to 40 feet.

Customized Forklift
This type of forklift is able to move in tight areas and fits through doorways, allowing it to go where standard forklifts cannot.

Stackers
They are fairly lightweight trucks, which almost look like small reach trucks.

Conveyors

Conveyors a.k.a conveyor belts are automated systems to move material between fixed points. During sortation, it also holds materials as a short-term buffer.

Conveyors are commonly used for the movement of:

unit loads
cases

cartons

pallets

Conveyor systems function with 2 pulleys that continually loop over the material that rotates over them. The belt, on which the material is placed, is supported by a series of rollers along the path.

Characteristics:

high throughput, fast response and suitable for continuous or intermittent movement
few operators required to manage

low power requirement

suitable for fixed routes

There are 2 types of conveyor systems:

Gravity conveyor systems

Powered conveyor systems

Gravity conveyor systems:

Requires no power supply, motors or switchgear. To achieve control of movement, such system requires incline.

Listed below are the various types of gravity conveyor systems:

Chutes

Skate wheel conveyors (for lightweight cases and cartons)

Powered conveyor systems:

It is power-operated thus inclines are neither required nor recommended.

Listed below are the various types of powered conveyor systems:

Powered roller conveyors