Material handling equipment is all equipment that relates to the movement, storage, control and protection of materials, goods

and products throughout the process of manufacturing, distribution, consumption and disposal. Material handling equipment is the mechanical equipment involved in the complete system. Material handling equipment is generally separated into four main categories: storage and handling equipment, engineered systems, industrial trucks, and bulk material handling.
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1 Ways in which material handling equipment can improve efficiency 2 Types of material handling equipment 2.1 Storage and handling equipment 2.2 Engineered systems 2.3 Industrial trucks 2.4 Bulk material handling 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit]Ways

in which material handling equipment can improve efficiency

Material handling equipment is used to increase throughput, control costs, and maximize productivity. There are several ways to determine if the material handling equipment is achieving peak efficiency. These include capturing all relevant data related to the warehouses operation (such as SKUs), measuring how many times an item is touched from the time it is ordered until it leaves the building, making sure you are using the proper picking technology, and keeping system downtime to a minimum. (1) [edit]Types

of material handling equipment

and handling equipment

[edit]Storage

Storage and handling equipment is a category within the material handling industry. The equipment that falls under this description is usually non-automated storage equipment. Products such as Pallet rack, shelving, carts, etc. belong to storage and handling. Many of these products

are often referred to as "catalog" items because they generally have globally accepted standards and are often sold as stock materials out of Material handling catalogs. [edit]Engineered

systems

Engineered systems are typically custom engineered material handling systems. Conveyors, Handling Robots, AS/RS, AGV and most other automated material handling systems fall into this category. Engineered systems are often a combination of products integrated to one system. Many distribution centers will optimize storage and picking by utilizing engineered systems such as pick modules and sortation systems. Equipment and utensils used for processing or otherwise handling edible product or ingredients must be of such material and construction to facilitate thorough cleaning and to ensure that their use will not cause the adulteration of product during processing, handling, or storage. Equipment and utensils must be maintained in sanitary condition so as not to adulterate product. [edit]Industrial

trucks

Industrial trucks usually refer to operator driven motorized warehouse vehicles. Industrial trucks assist the material handling system with versatility; they can go where engineered systems cannot. Forklift trucks are the most common example of industrial trucks but certainly aren't the extent of the category. Tow tractors and stock chasers are additional examples of industrial trucks. [edit]Bulk

material handling

Bulk material handling equipment is used to move and store bulk materials such as ore, liquids, and cereals. This equipment is often seen on farms, mines, shipyards and refineries. This category is also explained in Bulk material handling. [edit]See

also

Pallet Forklift truck Conveyor belt Automated Storage and Retrieval System Carton flow Mezzanine (architecture)

A pallet (pronounced /plt/) (sometimes called a skid) is a flat transport structure that supports goods in a stable fashion while being lifted by a forklift, pallet jack, front loader or other jacking device. A pallet is the structural foundation of a unit load which allows handling and storage

efficiencies. Goods or shipping containers are often placed on a pallet secured with strapping, stretch wrap or shrink wrap and shipped. While most pallets are wooden, pallets also are made of plastic, metal, and paper. Each material has advantages and disadvantages relative to the others.

Pallet construction
[edit]Types

of pallets

Pallets being used in a warehouse in Finland.

Although pallets come in all manner of sizes and configurations, all pallets fall into two very broad categories: "stringer" pallets and "block" pallets. The National Wooden Pallet & Container Association has developed a Pallet Design System PDS to manufacture pallets. PDS is a computer program that allows the pallet maker to generate the best suited pallet design for a specific load and generate several options for wood selections to further reduce costs. Cap3d is another program that does the same thing. [edit]Stringer pallet Stringer pallets use a frame of three parallel pieces of timber (called stringers). The top deckboards are then affixed to the stringers to create the pallet structure. Stringer pallets are also known as "two-way" pallets, since a pallet-jack may only lift it from two directions instead of four. Forklifts can lift a stringer pallet from all four directions, though lifting by the stringers is more secure. [edit]Block pallet Block pallets (also referred to as Manoj pallets) are typically stronger than stringer pallets. Block pallets utilize both parallel and perpendicular stringers to better facilitate efficient handling. A block pallet is also known as a "four-way" pallet, since a pallet-jack may be used from any side to move it.

[edit]Perimeter base pallet All stringer and some block pallets have "unidirectional bases," i.e. bottom boards oriented in one direction. While automated handling equipment can be designed for this, often it can operate faster and more effectively if the bottom edges of a pallet have bottom boards oriented in both directions. For example, it may not need to turn a pallet to rack it, and operation is less sensitive to pallet orientation. [edit]Quality improvements

Alternative uses

Stacked pallets.

Old and discarded wooden pallets can be used in pallet crafts. Discarded wooden pallets should not be used for fire wood or crafts unless it has been determined that the wood in these pallets has not been treated with wood preservatives, fungicides and/or pesticides. Various pyrethrins and propiconazole are common treatments for wooden pallets. In addition, imported palletized goods are routinely fumigated with highly toxic pesticides such as methyl bromide. During use, harmful materials or chemicals also may spill on the pallet wood and be absorbed.

Forklift truck
A forklift (also called a lift truck, a high/low, a stacker-truck, trailer loader, sideloader, fork truck, tow-motor or a fork hoist) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and transport materials. The modern forklift was developed in the 1920s by various companies including the transmission manufacturing company Clark and the hoist company Yale & Towne Manufacturing.[1] The forklift has since become an indispensable piece of equipment in manufacturing and warehousing operations.

A US man operating Hyster Forkilift.