Material Handling Systems

A material handling system is the equipment which isone can provide with the goods at the most
used to move the material in storage and freightconvenient time and at reasonable rates.
handling areas or around factory floor.To meet the increasing demand, the material handling
Previously in the material handling systems trolleys,systems breed has been recently developed which
conveyors, overhead traveling cranes and forkliftsincludes retrieval systems and automated storage,
were used. This required large amount of manualcarousels, automated guided vehicles and rail guided,
intervention and at the same time they used to alsopick and place units, intelligent flexible modular
consume lot of time. There were also handlingconveyors, vertical lifts and high density storage
problems like scratching, breaking, chipping, andsystems. They have also been upgraded with gripper
difficulty in monitoring material flow. However, theseor holding devices so that the fragile, delicate and
kinds of material handling systems were convenientsuper finished components can be carried easily.
when there was a bulk production to be done for aUsually material handling is the process which is
low volume production or limited variety products.carried in any kind of processes like production,
With the increasing competition and variety of goods,distribution, retail functions and storage. Reducing the
one need to have the modern mechanism or elsenumber of handling operations and complexity can
one would not be able to meet the market demands.increase productivity and to achieve this it is
With the demand in more production, it is importantimportant that the material movements are made
that the industries have modern machinery so thatautomated and simple.