“It can be difficult to find the right kind of material handling trolley for industrial applications, especially with all the choices available in the market.”
Material-handling trolleys have been around for almost 300 years now. And ever since their invention, they have made it far easier and safer to conduct logistics during industrial operations. With the rise in popularity and advancement in engineering and sciences, we have developed a vast variety of these trolleys to choose from.
Several criteria can affect the choice of the correct material handling trolley for your needs, whether personal or industrial.
How to Select the Best Material Handling Trolley for Your Industrial Needs
While deciding to buy a trolley, there are a couple of things to keep in mind to make sure that you make the correct decision. So, let’s discuss how to select the correct flatbed trolley for yourself.
(A). Structural Material
The first thing to keep in mind is the material used to make the trolley. These trolleys can be made using a variety of materials like aluminum, stainless steel, plastic, wood, etc. Different materials provide different combinations of material properties like strength, malleability, density, etc.
For example, aluminum is extremely light and strong and resistant to corrosion. Meaning that trolleys made from aluminum weigh less and capable of carrying heavy loads, and are highly resistant to rust. On the other hand, stainless steel is extremely strong and has antibacterial properties. Meaning that these trolleys provide a high loading capacity and high hygienic standards. Plastic is also extremely light and provides a decent strength-to-weight ratio, making them easy to maneuver medium loads like stacks of files.
(B). Load Bearing Capacity
The next thing to worry about is the load-bearing requirements of your operation. Trolleys come in all shapes and sizes, designed to carry a specific range of loads. For example, our Medical Trolleys are capable of carrying loads up to 150 kg, while our Heavy-Duty Trolley can carry weights up to 500 kg.
Trolleys capable of carrying heavy loads are also more expensive and heavier themselves, compared to low-load-carrying trolleys. Therefore, you must think about the weight of your items/assets and the number of rounds that is optimal per shipment to decide the perfect load-carrying capacity per trolley.
(C). Dimensions of the Load
This point is in correlation to its predecessor. Aside from the weight of material/loads, there is one more factor that determines the number of items you can carry at once. In order to, transport loads properly, they must be secured properly in the trolley. An item can be extremely light but may require a lot of space due to its dimensions.
This means, that a small but high load-bearing trolley will operate underloaded. This will not only waste time by increasing the number of trips per shipment, but also expend more energy on your workers. Thus, reducing the overall efficiency & productivity of your operations.
(D). Characteristics of Usage Environment
There are a number of environmental factors at your worksite (warehouse, manufacturing plant, etc.) like moisture, floor material, size of tracks & areas, etc. For example, different kinds of floor materials are compatible with different types of wheels. Matching the right kind of materials & loads can ensure the best operation outcomes for your business.
(E). ESD Treated
There are a number of businesses that deal with the transportation and storage of electronic components like computer manufacturers, warehouses, phone manufacturers, etc. This creates a problem by inducing an electrostatic charge within the trolley's body. This charge can cause permanent damage to electronic components.
Luckily, we have a solution for that, known as ESD (Electro-Static Discharge) treatment. This process requires the trolleys to be coated in a special ESD epoxy powder layer that prevents the collection of static charge on the trolley’s surface.
Types of Material Handling Trolleys
As mentioned above, there are a variety of different types of material handling trolleys available for purchase, with different applications. So, let’s discuss some popular trolley types.
(A). Shelf Trolley
As the name suggests, these trolleys are perfect for carrying small items like mail, parcels, etc. They are made from lightweight materials like plastic or aluminum.
(B). Platform Trolley
These trolleys consist of strong platforms designed to support heavy loads. The center of mass on these trolleys is usually very low, allowing them to have a good balance.
(C). Mesh Trolley
These trolleys don’t have a solid sheet or slab for holding materials, rather they consist of meshes, to save weight. These are usually used in supermarkets for carrying consumer items.
(D). Container Trolley
As the name suggests, their main application is for carrying heavy containers around, which is why they have wide and tall bodies to accommodate big containers. They provide exceptional load-carrying capacities.
(E). Pallet Trucks
These trolleys have elongated arms designed to go under pallets and support them. They have a low center of mass and an exceptional load-bearing capacity, of up to 5000 kg.
Advantages of Using a Material Handling Trolley
Material handling trolleys have become a very popular and involved aspect of any industry that deals with large volumes of heavy goods. These can vary from files & documents to manufactured units.
There are several advantages of utilizing these simple machines and help your business operations run far more smoothly and safely. So, let’s talk about them.
(A). Improved Efficiency
These trolleys make it very easy to transport heavy loads from one point to another at once, which would’ve been impossible to do by hand. Increasing the load capacity of workers per trip vastly improves the efficiency of the entire operation.
(B). Load Carrying Safety
Moving heavy loads could be a challenging and dangerous task. This is especially true when carrying items heavy enough that they crush you if they fall on you. With the help of these trolleys, your material remains safe& secured against tumbling, falling out, etc.
(C). Ease of Movement
Unlike carrying on the back or dragging items through the facility, trolleys utilize wheels. The most amazing benefit of having trolleys is that they have wheels that severely improve mobility due to reduced friction.
(D). Easy to Handle
By equally distributing the load over a wide area and using wheels, trolleys make it extremely easy to handle vast quantities of loads. The swivels on the wheels allow the users to change the direction of the load without much effort.
(E). Cost Effectiveness
By reducing the number of trips for carrying loads, these trolleys save a lot of time, making operations efficient. An increase in efficiency also means a decrease in cost over time. In addition, by securing loads, they also prevent any damage to the goods during transportation within the premises.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. What size is a material handling trolley?
These trolleys can be a different size and shape, all depending on the load they are meant to carry and their applications. For example, medical trolleys are small, look like movable racks, and are made from aluminum.
On the other hand, a heavy-duty flatbed trolley is large, consisting of a low flatbed to keep the center of mass lower. They are also usually made of stainless steel, as they are meant to carry several hundreds of kilograms of load.
Q2. What is the use of a warehouse trolley?
These are material-handling trolleys that are used in warehouses for transporting loads to and from the receiving dock to/from the storage space. These trolleys are usually flatbed type, so they can easily carry a large number of loads, easily.
Q3. What are the different types of trolleys?
There are many different types of trolleys available, due to the variety of applications and industries they are popular amongst. Some of the popular types of trolleys are – Mesh, Flatbed, Container Load, Pallet Trucks, etc.
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