Mechanical handling equipment encompasses a broad range of supportive tools, designed to make transporting and controlling heavy materials around the workplace easier and safer. You will find various types of mechanical handling equipment in environments such as warehouses and construction sites.
What Are the Different Types of Mechanical Handling Equipment?
General handling equipment, including racks and stacking frames, are essential for storage, but mechanical handling equipment is usually an electric or petrol-powered solution for moving materials that could not be carried by hand.
Common types of mechanical handling equipment include:
Engineered Systems
- Automated Guided Vehicles: These machines follow wires or markets on the floor to move heavy materials around a warehouse or facility.
- Automated Storage & Retrieval Systems: Often referred to as AS/RS, these large mechanical structures consist of aisles, racks, and shelves, which can be accessed using a cherry picker or something similar.
- Conveyor Systems: Utilising belts, chains, and rollers, conveyor systems are a brilliantly efficient way to transport heavy objects to set destinations.
- Robotic Delivery Systems: These are automated systems, and are most often used to move products on an assembly line, as well as transport materials in a warehouse.
Industrial Trucks
- Hand Trucks: Sometimes referred to as a box cart or dolly, hand trucks are L-shaped with handles set into one end and a spacious ledge for material handling.
- Order Picker: An electrically powered truck used for ‘picking’ customer orders on an individual scale and in a warehouse setting.
- Pallet Jacks: These are the simplest form of forklift, used to lift and transport pallets.
- Pallet Trucks: Powered (or manually operated) forklifts, for heavy-duty transportation in an industrial setting.
- Sideloader: Similar to a forklift, but can only be loaded from the side.
- Walkie Stackers: Again, very similar to a forklift, but walkie-stackers are pushed rather than driven around the workspace.
Bulk Material Handling
- Bucket Elevators: Used to haul pourable materials such as grain vertically.
- Grain Elevators: Another popular method of moving and storing grain and similar materials in and around a workplace.
- Hoppers: With their tapered design, hoppers are used for the controlled storage and discharge of bulk materials such as grain.
- Reclaimers: Large-scale machines are used for retrieving bulk materials in a stockpile.
- Stackers: Used in a similar way to forklifts, stackers are designed to help stack heavy materials and loads in a warehouse or on a dock.
Our Range of Mechanical Handling Equipment
We offer a wide range of high-quality mechanical handling tools and equipment, as well as a number of accessories and attachments to enhance existing equipment. The range includes, but is not limited to:
Drum Rotators
Drum rotators are essential for lifting and tilting polyethene drums to ease the pouring process. Our drum rotators can be fitted to almost any modern forklift, and they are essential for ensuring the safe handling of hazardous substances.
Drum Lifters
Our drum lifters can carry drums of up to 210 litres, and are an incredibly effective way to move drums safely and in a controlled manner. All of our drum lifters are weight test certified and CE marked, so you can be sure you are receiving the highest and most compliant quality.
Drum Positioners
Like our drum lifters, the drum positioners we supply can carry up to 210 litres. As an attachment for a forklift, these heavy-duty tools make transporting drums around the workplace safe and effortless.
Drum Grabs
As with our other forklift attachments, the drum grabs we provide are powerful and fully capable of use in any industrial setting. Drum grabs lift and position any steel, poly, and fibre drums where manual handling is not possible.
More Handling Equipment for Professional Use
Aside from our mechanical handling equipment, we also stock a wide range of manual handling equipment too. From drum stands and handling trucks to dollies and opening tools. Our manual and mechanical handling equipment can be implemented in most industrial environments, especially garages, warehouses, shipping, and chemical plants.
If you need a specific type of mechanical handling equipment that is not listed in our range, feel free to get in touch with our team. Here at Storage N Stuff, we are dedicated to sourcing and supplying exactly what our customers need, and for the best price possible.