Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Introduction of Material Handling Equipment (MHE)

Material handling equipment is used in a warehouse for the movement and storage of material.

I have found out from a website that there are actually five different categories of Material Handling Equipment - mainly the Transport Equipment, Positioning Equipment, Unit Load Formation Equipment, Storage Equipment and Identification and Control Equipment.

Transport Equipments are basically equipments that are used to transport materials from one place to another. Be it transporting materials from the staging area to the storage area, or from the storage area to the loading bay receiving bay and so on. Some examples of Transport Equipments can range from conveyor belts, cranes, industrial trucks and even human.

Conveyor Belts



Bridge Crane

Forklift

Positioning Equipments are equipments used to position the material to ensure that they are in the appropriate positions for safety purposes or convenient for further handling. They are used for handling if materials at a single workplace. Some examples of Position Equipment are the dock leveler, ball transfer table, parts feeder and air pallet. They can also be positioned manually with no equipment used.


Dock Leveler




Ball Transfer Table


Parts Feeder




Air Pallet




Unit Load Formation Equipments are used to make sure that the materials maintain in their position while being stored or shipped. It is best if the maximum number of items can be used to form the unit load as it reduces handling cost and product damage. Some examples of Unit Load Formation Equipments are pallets, tote pans, cartons and crates.

Pallet


Tote Pans



Carton



Crate



Storage Equipments are used for holding materials and products. These storage equipments are to be able to meet the criteria for storing the materials and products. Some of the Storage Equipments include selective pallet racks, shelves, drive through racks and sliding racks.


Pallet racks



Shelves




Drive Through Racks



Sliding Racks


Identification and Control Equipments are used to communicate and coordinate flow of material within the warehouse. Information can be retrievable by the warehouse alone, its customers and suppliers. With this kind of equipment, not only can information be retrieved more efficiently and accurately at a shorter time, the warehouse can also gain better control of their inventory. Some examples of the Identification and Control Equipments are such as barcoding, radio frequency tag and magnetic stripe.

Barcode



Radio Frequency Tag



Magnetic Stripe


entry by: hui min
Ref: http://www.ise.ncsu.edu/kay/mhetax/index.htm


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