Materials handling is one of the most important parts of a trade. It is actually described as the movement, transfer or storage of a certain facility within a large work area. Typically, the process involves very heavy load that is why there is a need to rely upon new or used materials handling equipment. When picking used material handling equipment for a company, one must be able to understand the category where the item falls. There are different categories depending on the material handling needs of a certain business establishment. Take a look at some of the most common ones.

Transport equipment is one category of material handling equipment that is popular in a lot of industries. Generally, it is responsible for the movement of one material from a certain location to another. One typical example is the transfer of materials between workplaces. There are major subcategories for transport material handling equipment including conveyors, industrial trucks and cranes. Samples of conveyors are chute, wheel, roller, chain, slat, flat belt, magnetic belt, bucket and screw conveyors. Samples of industrial trucks are hand, platform and counterbalanced lift trucks and pallet jacks. As for cranes, jib, bridge, stacker and gantry cranes are popular choices.

Positioning equipment is a type of materials handling equipment that is used in order to position a material in one location for proper machining, transport and handling later on. This is favored in industries where material handling is done within the workplace. Common examples are lift tables, dock levelers, ball transfer tables, part feeders, air film devices, manipulators, hoists and balancers. When looking for used material handling equipment falling under this category, one should be able to see if the machine serves the purposes of unit load formation. These types of equipment restrict the number of units carried in a single load. Some examples include pallets, skids, tote pans, pallet boxes, bins, cartons, crates, intermodal containers and palletizers.

There are still two more major categories for used material handling equipment namely storage and identification and control equipment. Storage equipment is used in order to store, hold or buff materials for a set period of time. The most common machines found in this category are selective pallet racks, flow-through racks, pushback racks, sliding racks and stacking frames. As for identification and control equipment, the machines are used in order to collect information and coordinate material flows inside a facility. Bar codes, radio frequency tags, magnetic stripes, machine vision and portable data terminals are popular examples.

Ergonomics has become very important in the workplace today. Cutting down on worker fatigue and injuries is a vital part of the profit of every company. The equipment used in the workplace has come a long way in being user friendly.

Material handling equipment is equipment that is specifically designed for mechanically handling packaged or bulky items, generally in a production, shipping or storage facility. The material to be handled, the plant building, and the issues of urgency and safety are a few factors that affect the decision on selecting the right material handling equipment.

Carts are one of the most basic tools that are widely used in material handling. You can now get all types of carts that have taken very important factors into consideration in there design. Some of these include cart height, handle design, caster size, and capacities.

This cart is probably one of the most ergonomically advanced carts. It allows items to be loaded onto it and pushed as a standard cart, then it can be elevated and tilted if needed to create a very ergonomic work environment. Carts can go from the previous advanced cart to a basic ergo handle shelf cart. There are many options in carts that can be ergo friendly, choosing one is really dependent on your specific application.

Another material handling product that adds to an ergonomic friendly work place is the self-dumping hopper. These hoppers are often used as a collection point for trash and other debris. When full they can be picked up by a forklift and simply by pulling a release from the seat of the forklift the hopper will dump and then return to the locked position. This alleviates the fatigue of using a standard tilt truck. Self-dumping hoppers can also come with casters so that a forklift is not needed to move the hopper and it dumps by the user simply pulling a lever and once dumped it will return to the upright locked position.

Another area where ergonomics have began to play a roll in design is the hand dolly. Dollies are not simple two upright handles and two wheels anymore. There are now dollies that have three wheels on each side designed for use on stairs. The wheels rotate around while going up or down stairs to relieve the fatigue workers have by bending over and using heavy force to pull the loaded dolly. Appliance dollies have also come out with ergo designs by adding small wheels that extend out the back of the dolly when it is loaded with an appliance to help the user not strain to support the weight of the appliance.