Castors aid material handling at the N.E.C
The recent Materials Handling exhibition at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham saw the coming together of hundreds of different companies exhibiting their materials handling products and equipment. From fork lift trucks, racking, conveyor systems to trolleys on castors, the range of equipment that is used in our Nations warehousing, distribution and retail sectors is immense.
The recent Materials Handling exhibition at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham saw the coming together of hundreds of different companies exhibiting their materials handling products and equipment. From fork lift trucks, racking, conveyor systems to trolleys on castors, the range of equipment that is used in our Nations warehousing, distribution and retail sectors is immense. Essentially materials handling equipment is all equipment that relates to the movement, storage, protection and control of materials, goods and products throughout the process of manufacturing, distribution, consumption and disposal. Its only when you see these materials handling equipment on display, do you realise that castors and wheels are the back bone of material handling industry.
One such industry sector that uses a vast array of castors and wheels for material handling is the supermarket and retail sector. For example any product sold in a shop, has been manufactured, stored, distributed, picked, often redistributed and then displayed on a shelf. All these separate movements of any product require a mixture of castors attached to material handling equipment to perform the job. Castors can be attached to picking trolleys and flat bed trolleys, also castors can be attached to a variety of delivery van trolleys and dolly's with castors can maneuver pallets and racks into position. There are so many options with material handling equipment, and these go hand in hand with a variety of castors sizes and castors wheels options.
A recent development within the Supermarket and retail sector has been noise reducing castors on all their material handling equipment. Traditionally deliveries are made to stores using a variety of mesh trolleys on nylon castors. The galvanized steel frames are hard wearing and the nylon castors are strong and can last for years. The downside is the noise these trolleys on nylon castors can make. Many residents surrounding supermarkets have put pressure on the retail sector to provide a solution to reduce the constant delivery noise. Noise reducingcastors is one such solution. Simply by replacing the nylon castors with rubber wheeled castors the noise of the trolley is reduced by forty percent.
Although this is not the whole solution, noise reducing rubber castors can be very strong, and can absorb minor floor imperfections to produce a smoother and quieter ride. Of course changes to the galvanized mesh trolleys on castors may also have to be made if the noise is to be reduced even further. Some such developmental ideas have been to foam fill the frames to prevent the noise reverberations of metal on metal. Also other ideas have been to pvc coat the trolleys on castors, however this does add to the cost of the material handling trolleys. By far the simplest and most cost effective solution would be to replace the nylon castors with rubber castors.
As the NEC exhibition draws to a close for another four years the materials handling industry continues to make developments within the movement, storage, protection and control of materials, goods and products within our manufacturing and distribution sectors. At the forefront of this development are castors and wheels, as without these the materials handling industry would grind to a halt!
