Material Handling Equipment Research Articles

Evolution and development tendencies of material handling machines

The tools used during mobilities are very diverse, but their operation and structure can be traced back to the same basic principles that created the material handling machines during the previous centuries. Today, knowledge of material handling machines has become a basic necessity not only for industrial and service processes, but also for people's everyday lives, since our lives are almost unimaginably filled with different means of transportation, or without using the vehicles that transport and load our daily consumer goods. As in all areas, material handling is becoming more and more modern, and equipment that serves social and economic needs at a high level is used. One of the most defining characteristics of today's consumer society is extremely rapid change, which also affects our devices, so the design of material handling machines is also constantly changing. An important question of competitive service is how to meet rapidly changing needs. In my article, I review the development of material handling equipment, or the most important handling machines used in modern systems. Based on the outlined processes and technical changes, I will try to show where material handling is headed, what trends prevail today or are expected in server systems of the near future.

A Study of Working Capital Management with Special Reference to Escorts Kubota Limited

Escorts Kubota limited was formerly known as Escorts Limited. It is an Indian multinational company. It operates in agricultural machinery sector and many more sectors like construction machinery, material handling and railway equipment. It has its headquarters at Haryana and Faridabad. The Research study was conducted to study the working capital management in Escorts Kubota limited. The study is divided into three sections. The first section of the study gives the introduction, which includes the overview of Working capital management, objectives of the study, significance of the study and the limitations of the study. Second section of the study deals with the analyses of the data and in the third section findings and conclusions are given.

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF PORTABLE FORKLIFT

The paper explores the development and production of a Portable Forklift, emphasizing its role in revolutionizing mechanical industries. Offering improved visibility and scalability, it enables operators to maneuver industrial environments more effectively. Versatile in its applications, it provides flexible and efficient solution for modern industries seeking it’s operational optimization. Its implementation promises increased efficiency and accuracy in transporting mechanical tasks and goods within fabrication plants. By enhancing mobility and flexibility, it meets the evolving needs of industrial lines, fostering smoother workflows and higher productivity. With its compact design and adaptable features, the Portable Forklift represents a significant advancement in material handling equipment. Its integration into industrial operations signals a move towards greater efficiency and effectiveness in logistical processes. Overall, the Portable Forklift stands as a transformative solution, set to elevate efficiency and productivity standards across various industrial sectors. Key Words: development, scalability, optimization, mobility, optimization, implementation, adaptability, logistical.

A study on: Design and fabrication of E-glass fiber reinforced IPN composite chain plates for low duty chain drives

Chains are used in mechanical drives to carry away a large amount of load from one drive to another drive. Therefore the material of the chain should be able to withstand tensile loads and have high stiffness. Usually the chains are made up of iron. But the disadvantage is that iron consumes more weight and it is more expensive. In order overcome the difficulties, the chain plates are fabricated with the help of Interpenetrating Polymer Networks (IPNs) resins (with vinyl ester and polyurethane) and reinforced E-glass fiber composite material. The main aim of the project is to study and analyze the physical properties and structural properties of the plate material varying proportions of IPN resin such as 100% vinyl ester (VEU) with 0% polyurethane (PU), 90% VEU and 10% PU, 80% VEU and 20% PU, 70% VEU and 30% PU, 60% VEU and 40% PU. Finally a fatigue tests is conducted for different plates for different resin proportion and comparison is made between the characteristics of fabricated chain plate with that of iron material. Because of their dependability and durability, glass fibre reinforced composite link plates are used in material handling equipment, agricultural machinery, manufacturing conveyors, and automobile manufacture.

Redundant Non-Serial Implicit Manipulator Kinematics and Dynamics

Abstract Redundant non-serial manipulators that include a spectrum of parallel and non-parallel heavy load bearing construction and material handling equipment are treated, using foundations of differential geometry. Kinematics of this category of manipulator are defined in manipulator configuration space by algebraic equations in input and output coordinates that cannot be explicitly solved for either as a function of the other. New sets called assembly components of manipulator configuration space are defined that partition the space into maximal, path-connected, disjoint, topological components. All configurations within an assembly component can be connected by one or more continuous paths within that component, but configurations in different assembly components cannot be connected by continuous paths. Forward and inverse kinematically singular configurations are characterized by criteria that partition each assembly component into path-connected, singularity-free assembly components in which equations of kinematics and dynamics are well behaved. It is shown that a generalized inverse velocity-based kinematic formulation that is problematic for serial manipulators is likewise plagued with problems for non-serial implicit manipulators that can be avoided using the methods presented. Singularity-free differentiable manipulator configuration space components are defined and parameterized by both input and operational coordinates, leading to well-posed ordinary differential equations of manipulator dynamics in both input and operational coordinates. Three typical applications and associated model problems are studied throughout the paper to illustrate the methods and results presented.

Macnum Wheel: An Emerging Trend for Material Handling Equipment in Industries

Macnum Wheel: An Emerging Trend for Material Handling Equipment in Industries

Hybridization in meta-heuristic techniques for green layout design in the tyre manufacturing industry: An optimal analysis

To stop or lessen factory pollution, many academics in the field of study have produced a vast array of strategies to achieve optimization goals. But, it is unable to follow a uniform solution for all production facilities. In this research work, green layout design (GLD) is proposed to minimize total material handling cost (TMHC) and CO2 emissions. The green facility layout refers to the facility layout with minimum CO2 emissions and to eliminate unnecessary energy dissipation from material handling equipments & production machineries, as well as plant re-layout in-term on material handling cost. In this study context, a Lagrangian relaxation model has been used at the allocation level. It computes a suboptimal solution to the dual problem in order to obtain a feasible solution. This enhanced algorithm method iteratively tries to minimize the gap between the dual and feasible solutions on minimal of TMHC and CO2 emission rate. It has been experimentally simulated using the MATLAB (Matrix Laboratory) application and upgraded adaptive salp swarm optimization (ASSO), dragon fly optimization (DFO) and Hybrid (combination) of ASSO-DFO evolutionary optimization techniques. The primary focus of this implementation is to control material handling between departments or cells, production flow between departments, energy consumption (electrical and gas consumption for production), and manpower utilization within and across departments. This research has chosen an existing and acceptable designs from targeted tyre manufacturing company in South India. The hybrid ASSO-DFO implementation TMHC differs from ABC by 60%, DFO by 65%, 58% with simulated annealing (SA), and ASSO by 48%. Emission rate decreased by 26% ABC, 21% DFO, and 24% SA & 18% with ASSO. An average of 50% decrease in TMHC and 25% reduction of CO2 emission rate in GLD have been achieved.

Experimental investigation of stereolithography and digital light processing additive manufactured pallets

Abstract Pallets are a tertiary form of packaging used for stacking, storing, protecting, or transporting goods in supply chains. They are utilized as a base for the unitization of goods for logistics and warehousing. Moreover, pallets can be manufactured using wood, plastic, metal, and corrugated paper, which can be used as material-handling equipment. With several products being transported worldwide and with year-on-year growth, it would be beneficial to make lightweight pallets. Such pallets are recyclable, easy to clean, cheap, and durable to maintain and store. Though most of the pallets are widely available for basic purposes, applications involving high-end bio-packings and transportation of special chemicals require specialized pallets to be manufactured like polymers to ensure a negligible chemical reaction, light in weight, and attenuation in freight capacity, thereby widespread reduction in wastage. With advancements, job to job and immediate requirements, additive manufacturing has the potential to close the gap for jobs with short lead times. If the design process of new pallets has limits the creation of specific codes, the transitions will be smoother in rapid prototyping. This work describes the development of polymer pallets by taking advantage of stereolithography (SLA) and digital light processing (DLP) technology for 3D printing pallets in correlation to injection moulding. After the pallets are designed and manufactured, AM technologies can be applied to specified standards, and the pallets then undergo tensile strength, elongation, and hardness tests. The analysis was carried out for configurable geometries adapting to fork lifting, conveyor, racking, and stacking conditions. Analytical and numerical solutions were carried out to understand the stress and deflections for each geometry and its wide range of applications for pallets.

Warehouse management optimization using a sorting-based slotting approach

Purpose: Slotting is one of the main operations in warehouse management. It is based on the efficient allocation of slots for stock-keeping units (SKUs). Order picking and slotting represent a high percentage of total logistics costs; therefore, improving these activities leads to significant savings in the overall performance. This paper aims to develop an allocation model integrating SKUs physical variables, warehousing design, and operation (dimensions, layout, material handling equipment), and heterogeneous product demand.Design/methodology/approach: The modeling methodology considers two phases. First, an integer linear programming model for warehousing spaces assignment for SKUs considering priority and required orders is developed. Then, the total operation times using different strategies are calculated.Findings: The effectiveness of the model was verified through simulation using historical data. The results showed that the best performance in the total time of the slotting operation is achieved by using the ABC as a criterion for the classification of the SKUs and by sequentially assigning the row, level, column, and the section.Practical implications: This approach can be adapted to different industrial sectors and serves as a basis for more robust models regarding the number of constraints or the incorporation of additional warehouse operating parameters.Originality/value: The most important contribution of this work is the development of a flexible and adaptable methodology to changes in the operation to improve the efficiency of storage management through slotting. Future work includes other objective functions of sustainable operations and uncertainty treatment techniques.

Potential carbon emissions reduction from warehousing activity using vegetation projection planting

Large energy consumption and environmental impact from logistical operations which majorly caused by the lighting, heating, cooling, and air conditioning systems alongside fixed and moving material handling equipment are now a major contributor to GHG (Greenhouse Gases). This research objective is to calculate the potential carbon emissions reduction by implementing vegetation projection planting on the company and alternative energy implementation. The method used in this study is by recording and calculating data from the company operational which then convert into data activity. The results from this study stated that company operational contribute 6,588,252.19 KgCO2/month. The existing vegetation capable to absorb 3,810 KgCO2/month, meanwhile the potential carbon emissions reduction which come from planting projection and alternative energy implementation is 6,928,718.7 KgCO2/month. With the increasing of environmental impact from logistical operations, it is necessary to conduct environmental assessment regarding the company business process. Calculating GHG emissions in form of carbon emissions can be the first step to conduct the assessment. Utilization of available green open space area and alternative energy implementation is some potential method to direct or indirectly reduce carbon emissions from warehousing operations.

Nanoscale engineering of solid-state materials for boosting hydrogen storage.

The development of novel materials capable of securely storing hydrogen at high volumetric and gravimetric densities is a requirement for the wide-scale usage of hydrogen as an energy carrier. In recent years, great efforts via nanoscale tuning and designing strategies on both physisorbents and chemisorbents have been devoted to improvements in their thermodynamic and kinetic aspects. Increasing the hydrogen storage capacity/density for physisorbents and chemisorbents and improving the dehydrogenation kinetics of hydrides are still considered a challenge. The extensive and fast development of advanced nanotechnologies has fueled a surge in research that presents huge potential in designing solid-state materials to meet the ultimate U.S. Department of Energy capacity targets for onboard light-duty vehicles, material-handling equipments, and portable power applications. Different from the existing literature, in this review, particular attention is paid to the recent advances in nanoscale engineering of solid-state materials for boosting hydrogen storage, especially the nanoscale tuning and designing strategies. We first present a short overview of hydrogen storage mechanisms of nanoscale engineering for boosted hydrogen storage performance on solid-state materials, for example, hydrogen spillover, nanopump effect, nanosize effect, nanocatalysis, and other non-classical hydrogen storage mechanisms. Then, the focus is on recent advancements in nanoscale engineering strategies aimed at enhancing the gravimetric hydrogen storage capacity of porous materials, reducing dehydrogenation temperature and improving reaction kinetics and reversibility of hydrogen desorption/absorption for metal hydrides. Effective nanoscale tuning strategies for enhancing the hydrogen storage performance of porous materials include optimizing surface area and pore volume, fine-tuning nanopore sizes, introducing nanostructure doping, and crafting nanoarchitecture and nanohybrid materials. For metal hydrides, successful strategies involve nanoconfinement, nanosizing, and the incorporation of nanocatalysts. This review further addresses the points to future research directions in the hope of ushering in the practical applications of hydrogen storage materials.

Application of the R method in solving material handling equipment selection problems

In manufacturing industries, material handling equipment plays a vital role and is considered as one of the important pillars to increase production efficiency. Hence, the selection of appropriate material handling equipment for a specific task is well acknowledged, but the complexity of this selection process drastically increases with the rise in the number of alternative equipment available in the market and a set of conflicting evaluation criteria. To resolve this problem, several multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques have been proposed by past researchers. In this paper, the application potentiality of a newly developed MCDM technique, i.e. R method is explored while solving five material handling equipment selection problems, i.e. conveyor, automated guided vehicle (AGV), stacker, wheel loader and excavator. The derived ranking results are contrasted with other popular MCDM techniques to validate its potentiality in shortlisting the candidate alternatives from the best to the worst, which would ultimately help in improving the overall efficiency of the manufacturing processes.

Locomotive maintenance facility layout design using systematic layout planning method: Case study of Semarang Poncol locomotive depot

The Locomotive Depot has a maintenance layout with 6 main lines as maintenance lines. The layout of the facilities is also a problem at the Semarang Poncol locomotive depot because only 1 line can effectively carry out maintenance and repairs so this is a disadvantage because of the dense queue of locomotives wishing to be on duty carrying out daily checks or monthly checks. The problem is that these 3 routes are often 2 of which are not maximized properly and are only used as a place to wait for the repair process and 1 route is effective as a place for maintenance. The Systematic Layout Planning method is a method that plans the layout. The aim of arranging facilities is to increase work productivity and optimize the use of facilities such as work areas, machines and labor. One way to design a facility layout is to pay attention to the sequence of processes and the degree of closeness between units in the facility to be designed. Then, to calculate material handling at the Semarang Poncol Locomotive Depot using the systematic layout planning method, the results obtained from calculating material handling costs from the Semarang Poncol Locomotive Depot were Rp. 99,990/meter and for material handling equipment data, forklifts require material handling costs of Rp. 3,759,649 and for the high diesel speed (HSD) pump requires material handling costs of Rp. 84,288. For the proposed space requirements for each department or room, starting from the spare parts warehouse, the distance changes after calculating 0. Then the used spare parts warehouse changes the distance by -4.7, the lubricant warehouse by -0.1 and the fuel tank by +12.1. Space requirements are seen from the process (towards the maintenance route) after calculating the varying space requirements. From the very first lubricant warehouse and workshop, the distance change after calculating -3. Then followed by TPS B3 used lubricant of -1.9. Then the tool space is +1.1. Then the monitoring room is -5.5. Then the backup generator is -1.5. Furthermore, warehouse facilities are -6. Then the KR/staff space is -3.6. Then the TPS B3 filter is -0.3. Then the rotary spoiler is +13.4 and finally the lubricant warehouse II is +6.3 m2. With these calculations, after carrying out various data processing calculations, the proposed calculation using the systematic layout planning method is in accordance with the character of the Semarang Poncol Locomotive Depot as a service workshop owned by PT. Indonesian Railways. The proposal submitted to the Semarang Poncol Locomotive Depot can be used as a reference in designing the layout of the existing facilities at the Semarang Poncol Locomotive Depot in order to shorten the process flow and material flow for the maintenance process.

Queueing network models for the analysis and optimisation of material handling systems: a systematic literature review

Material handling systems (MHSs) are an integral part of logistics functions in manufacturing and service organizations. Material handling equipment (MHE) is considered the pivotal actor of any given MHS. Decisions ranging from the strategic level, such as selecting the proper MHE, capacity, and ownership (in-house or outsourcing) to operational level decisions such as resource allocation, scheduling, and routing of MHEs, are critical to the efficiency of an MHS. Industry practitioners use various methods and tools to evaluate these MHSs to find the best policies for their operations. This study identifies past works related to the performance evaluation and optimisation of MHSs using queueing network models. Moreover, this study provides a comprehensive analysis of identified research questions. The study methodology adopts a systematic literature review, bibliometric, and content analysis techniques proposed in similar research studies. This study provides material logistics scholars and practitioners with a thorough understanding of queueing networks as a modelling tool for analysing MHS applications in various domains.

Application of CAD Systems in Designing Material Handling Equipment

Application of CAD Systems in Designing Material Handling Equipment

Design of a hydraulic trolley to reduce work risks in gram transfer activities at PT XYZ

Material Handling Equipment (MHE) is a tool used to facilitate worker activities when doing heavy work. Material Handling Equipment (MHE) is also very helpful for workers in reducing the workload caused by less ergonomic activities that can cause worker fatigue. At PT XYZ there is activity of transferring grams onto trucks with trolleys. In the activity of transferring gram ± 60 minutes for transferring gram onto the truck. The worker's posture when using the trolley has a REBA value of 12 which means Very High Risk. Therefore this study focuses on redesigning the trolley with consideration of REBA analysis using the Kansei Engineering approach. The results of the redesign get a REBA value of 3, it can be concluded that the proposed trolley is better than the existing trolley

Gravity Powered Material Handling Trolley using Conveyor System

Material handling equipment is the media of transportation of material from one location to another in a commercial space. Weight operated material handling equipment has huge load carrying capacity, large covering area simplified design, easy maintenance and high reliability of operation. This paper is mainly based on for material handling, it not required external power i.e., electricity. On account of this, a machine and its physical description is covered here. Applications of material handling trolley are increasing day by day in manufacturing industries due to its flexibility and accuracy in working. Industries like packaging and food processing, manufacturing production workshops uses material handling trolley for the rapid production and less power utilization. The main objective was to build a vehicle of capable of transporting weight of a materials up to 10 kg of travelling to some distance with varying speed.

Developing Fuzzy-AHP-Integrated Hybrid MCDM System of COPRAS-ARAS for Solving an Industrial Robot Selection Problem

Robots are one of the most commonly used automated material handling equipment (MHE) in an industry, installed to perform a variety of hazardous and repetitive tasks, e.g., loading, unloading, pick-and-place operations, etc. The selection of an appropriate industrial robot is influenced by a number of subjective and objective factors that define its characteristics and working accuracy. As a result, robot selection can be regarded as a multi-criteria decision-making problem. In this article, a new hybrid MCDM model combining COPRAS and ARAS is developed to execute an industrial robot selection process based on three alternatives and five criteria. Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process is integrated to compute the parametric weights. It is discovered that Robot 3 and Robot 1 are coming out to be the best and worst alternative robots from this hybrid model. Finally, comparative analysis among eight other MCDM tools and sensitivity analysis are also performed to assess the stability and robustness of the developed hybrid model and other applied MCDM tools.

Shipyard facility layout optimization through the implementation of a sequential structure of algorithms

The objective of this work is to optimize a shipyard facility layout through required departments' closeness conditions to minimize total material handling cost. In order to resolve this type facility layout problem, departments' closeness conditions must be respected when the manufacturing and material handling processes require it according to the supply and movement requirements throughout production flow, especially when the activity requires material handling equipment of common use between departments. As a result of this work the optimization is achieved through the implementation of a stochastic sequential algorithm, comprising the following steps: 1) Topological Optimization from a Genetic Algorithm, 2) Transferring the centroid coordinates of each department from the topological grid to the geometrical grid from a computational procedure, and 3) Geometrical Optimization from a Stochastic Growth Algorithm, with a fine-tuning of the solution achieved using the Electre Method and a Local Search Method. Computational experiments were performed to prove the effectiveness of the system and evaluate the performance of each algorithm listed in the scope of the proposed solution. We have proved that the proposed Sequential Structure of Algorithms can successfully solve the problem. Computational experiments results are also presented in the supplementary material of this work.

Energy Efficiency of AGV-Drone Joint In-Plant Supply of Production Lines

Energy efficiency plays an increasingly important role not only in supply chains, but also in in-plant supply systems. Manufacturing companies are increasingly using energy-efficient material handling equipment to solve their in-plant material handling tasks. A new example of this effort is the use of drones for in-plant transportation of small components. Within the frame of this article, a new AGV-drone joint in-plant supply model is described. The joint service of AGV-based milkrun trolleys and drones makes it possible to optimize the in-plant supply in production lines. This article discusses the mathematical description of AGV-drone joint in-plant supply solutions. The numerical analysis of the different AGV-drone joint in-plant supply solutions shows that this new approach can lead to an energy consumption reduction of about 30%, which also has a significant impact on GHG emission.