Material Handling Equipment - Industrial and Systems Engineering

MATERIAL HANDLING EQUIPMENT11. SideloaderForks mounted perpendicular to direction of travel to allow forside loading and straddle load support5–6 ft. minimum aisle width requirementCan be used to handle greater-than-pallet-size loads (e.g., barstock)12. Tractor-trailerNon-load-carrying tractor used to pull a train oftrailers (i.e., dollies or floor hand trucks)Advantage: Enables a single operator totransport multiple floor hand trucks in a singlemoveDisadvantage: Requires wide aisles or open spaces to operateTractor sometimes termed a “tugger”Manual version of a tow AGVTypically used at airports for baggage handling13. Personnel and burden carrierNon-load-carrying vehicle used to transportpersonnel within a facility (e.g., golf cart,bicycle, etc.)14. Automatic guided vehicle (AGV)AGVs do not require an operatorGood for high labor cost, hazardous, or environmentally sensitive conditions (e.g., clean-room)Also termed “automated guided vehicle”AGVs good for low-to-medium volume medium-to-long distance random material flowoperations (e.g., transport between work cells in a flexible manufacturing system (FMS)environment)Two means of guidance can be used for AGV systems:Fixed path: Physical guidepath (e.g., wire, tape, paint) on the floor used for guidanceFree-ranging: No physical guidepath, thus easier to change vehicle path (in software), but46