Material Handling

We offer a wide variety of material handling solutions to get you through every job.

What is material handling equipment?

Equipment for material handling is used for efficiently moving, storing, or shipping items. To reduce the effort put forth to move heavy or bulky materials between locations, a conveyor system is used. Within commercial and industrial facilities, shelving and storage racks keep supplies, materials, and tools accessible and organized. To reduce the effort needed for moving heavy industrial equipment and office furniture, use dollies and movers. Carts and trucks are best used for pushing, lifting, and positioning cumbersome and bulky items. Equipment and hardware used for lifting and hoisting can help in reducing injuries caused from raising heavy items.

Storage And Handling Equipment

Storage equipment is typically limited to non-automated systems. The majority of different storage equipment refers to shelves, racks, or pallets on which material can be stored in a manner to await consumption or transportation. Increased efficiency has been investigated by many companies through proprietary packaging in storage equipment that allows products or materials of a certain type to conserve space in inventory.

• Racks, pallet racks, drive-through/in racks, push-back racks, and sliding racks are basic but important methods of saving floor space on storage while keeping contents accessible.

• Stacking frames are block-like stackable frames that allow crushable inventory pallets such as liquid containers to be stacked to save space without damage.

• Shelves/Bins/Drawers are a basic storage method with more structural integrity than racks. With the use of bins and drawers, these shelves are able to keep smaller and more difficult to manage materials and products easily organized and stored.

• Mezzanines are a type of indoor platform, made to create more floor space in a warehouse or storage building. Types of mezzanine include building supported, movable, rack supported, modular, and free-standing.

• Work assistant tooling allows safe and efficient handling of products across numerous industrial applications that require the movement of products which in turn enhances the efficiency of manufacturing and assembly operations.

Engineered Systems

Engineered Systems is a category that covers a variety of units that work in unison to enable automated transportation and storage. An example of this would be an automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS), where a large automated organizational structure is accessed by a “shuttle” retrieval system. The shuttle retrieval system is used to cherry-pick storage items either fully automated or through a worker’s input.

Conveyor systems are another type of engineered system that, depending on what they are meant to transport, can include vibrating, overheard, vertical, chain, and apron conveyors.

Automated Guide Vehicles are trucks that are independently computer-operated whose function is to transport loads along a predefined path. To avoid running into anything, these AGVs have sensors and detectors to determine proximity to other objects.

Industrial Material Handling Trucks

These types of trucks refer to the various kinds of transport items and vehicles used to relocate products and materials. These devices of transportation may include pallet jacks, hand-operated trucks, and various kinds of forklifts. These types of trucks have various characteristics that make them suitable for numerous operations. Certain trucks have forks (forklift), some have a flat surface for lifting items, while others require a separate piece of equipment for loading. These material handling trucks as well can be manual or hydraulic lift, and operation can require the user to manually push the truck or ride along on the truck. As the name implies, a stack truck is used to stack items, while a non-stack truck is more so used for transportation.

Different kinds of industrial material handling trucks include:

• Hand trucks: A basic piece of material handling equipment featuring a small platform for setting the edge of a heavy object on, and a long handle for leverage.

• Pallet trucks: Otherwise known as pallet jacks, this type of truck is made specifically for moving pallets. They have forks that slide into a pallet to lift and move it. There are both manual and electrical versions of pallet trucks.

• Platform trucks: Fitted with a wide platform for transporting goods, these hand trucks sit low to the ground for easy transportation of small to medium sized items.

• Walkie stackers: Like a forklift, walkie stackers lift and transport pallets, though without the space for an operator to ride in. These also come in manual or powered versions.

• Order pickers: To retrieve or store goods on high shelves, order pickers lift the operator on a platform, several feet above the ground.

• Sideloaders: Also known as sidelifters or VNA (Very Narrow Aisle) trucks, they are meant to fit into the narrow aisles of a warehouse since they can load objects from different directions. Sideloaders are also good for long or awkward products that need to be moved.

• AGVs: Many types of automatic guided vehicles shuttle products automatically along a route.

Bulk Material Handling Equipment

Bulk material handling is the storing, transportation, and control in loose bulk form. Materials can include liquids, food, minerals, and much more. These pieces of equipment generally deal with loose forms of items in large quantities or packaged form through the use of drums and hoppers on conveyor belts or elevators.

• Stackers: Usually automated, moves between two points along rails and piles bulk material into stockpiles.

• Reclaimers: Just the opposite of a stacker, a reclaimer retrieves materials from a stockpile. Some reclaimers use a bucket wheel to carry material while others are portal or scraper style.

• Bucket elevators: Carries material vertically using buckets attached to a rotating belt or chain. Bucket elevators are also referred to as grain legs.

• Grain elevators: This is a tall building specifically for storing grain and includes equipment to bring the grain to the top of the elevator to be sent out for processing.

• Hoppers: These funnel-shaped containers allow material to be dumped or poured to one container from another. Hoppers, unlike funnels, are able to hold material until it is needed.

• Silos: Generally large structures for storing bulk materials, though they don’t have the equipment within a grain elevator for processing. Tower, bunker, and bag silos are a few of the variety of different silos.

• Elevated lift tables: Designed to slowly lower and lift heavy loads to easier transfer onto other handling equipment. Available in hydraulic, pneumatic, and scissor lift versions, lift tables are simple devices that ensure employee safety when used correctly and enhance productivity.

OUR SERVICE AREA

We provide industrial supplies and vendor-managed inventory to customers all over the Atlanta Metropolitan area in Georgia. This includes Alpharetta, Auburn, Bogart, Braselton, Buford, Commerce, Cumming, Dacula, Hoschton, Jefferson, Monroe, Statham, and Winder. If your looking for industrials supplies from an affordable and reputable company GTA is here for you!

Our goal is to be more than your main industrial supply company. We want to partner with our customers to help increase your business efficiency and production.