With increasing product standardization and mass production, manufacturing systems require efficient material handling design to maintain productivity. In this Digital Twin era most companies are going for manufacturing flexibility and full automation. In this domain material handling plays a very crucial role in terms of product material flow from initial stage to the final product storage. Material handling process may include part selection and transferring, palletizing, machine loading and unloading. It is during this process the chances of material mishandling are high. This material mishandling in worst case can lead to part rejection due to mishandling damage. This can also lead to catastrophic bottlenecking in production line.
A well-structured material handling process may include part selection and transfer, palletizing, machine loading, and unloading. During these operations, improper handling can lead to material damage, production bottlenecks, or even part rejection. To prevent this, every production facility must focus on robust material handling system design.
Why Material Handling Design Matters
Any production line needs a reliable material handling equipment system capable of transporting materials quickly and safely. These systems should have adequate payload capacity, gripping ability, speed, and reach – ensuring maximum throughput with minimal downtime.
Hence, there’s a growing need for foolproof material handling equipment design that combines strength, safety, and cost efficiency.
Factors Affecting Design of Material Handling Equipment
A material handling system should provide right amount of material to avoid bottle necking, at right place and position. During these operation a material handling device is subjected to both static and dynamic loading. The equipment is not only designed for withstanding these loaded condition we also have to consider its weight factor, for better efficiency. Following are the major factors to be considered while designing a material handling equipment:
- Type of payload
- Direction and amount of payload
- Floor space available
- Type of movement and method selection
Considering the application area type of loading may vary, equipment may be designed for static loading where load is applied gradually, it is always more complex to design for impact loading than for static loading since load is applied within fraction of microsecond. A proper material handling design must ensure energy absorption and uniform load distribution to prevent fatigue or failure.. For impact loading usually failure starts with a small crack, ultimately leading to catastrophic failure. Fatigue loading is another type of dynamic loading for which failure can occur. Fatigue loading can be eliminated by proper material selection and structure rigid design.
Direction of loading may depend on the part for which equipment is designed. For small parts or for bulky units, material handling equipment needs to upholding parts to be moved. Whereas in assembly paint shop for parts like car bonnet may need a mean to be hanged on the handling device. Considering the effect of amount payload capacity, higher the payload, more will be chances of failure, more will be the need of rigid/ robust design. While designing for given payload, ergonomics of the equipment is also to be considered especially while designing conventional human operated material handling device. Device ergonomics may include calculation of how much force has to be applied by the individual (considering the factor the maximum load that can be carried by the each person), whether the device involves pulling or pushing, static or sustained posture maintained, vibration disturbance and temperature extremes. Proper ergonomic design ensures both efficiency and employee safety, aligning with the principles of material handling system design.
Equipment design need to so as to make most effective use of floor space. Use of vertical height is always a plus point in design of handling devices, because vertical height is sufficiently available in any industry.
It is generally advised to make maximise the use of gravity. As this reduces efforts in transportation and increases overall system efficiency i.e. more output with less energy input. Appropriate means for transporting the medium depends on the origin position, position of destination, frequency of travel required, time taken to reach the final destiny and unit load to be transported.
No doubt the main objective is to reduce the device overall cost while implementing all the four points into the system. It all overall depends on the application for which it is to be used. Proper material selection is also important depending upon amount of payload and operating environmental condition. Set of unit load that is to be moved is also an important decision factor in material handling equipment designing.
Why do we need Good Material Handling Device?
- Reduce bottlenecking and maximise productivity
- Maximise safety
- Proper work flow (Reduce idle time of machine)
- Reduce repetitive handling
- Good inventory control
- Less piling of work on shop floor
- Efficient use of shop floor
What IDEAS does in this domain?
At IDEAS, we provide comprehensive material handling design services tailored to manufacturing environments:
- 3D Part Modelling & Assembly: Optimized equipment design considering placement, unit size, and cost efficiency.
- Engineering Analysis: Stress and fatigue calculations, topology and weight optimization for safer designs.
- Manufacturing Support: CNC programming, CAD support for plasma cutting, and 3D printing inputs.
Our engineering design team ensures every material handling process design we create aligns with performance, safety, and reliability standards for modern manufacturing.