Introduction to

Material Handling
 Manufacturing is the application of physical and chemical
processes to alter the geometry, properties, and/or
appearance of a given starting material to make parts or
products; manufacturing also includes assembly of multiple
parts to make products.
 Technology can be defined as the application of science to
provide society and its members with those things that are
needed or desired.
 Primary industries cultivate and exploit natural
resources, such as agriculture and mining.
 Secondary industries take the outputs of the
primary industries and convert them into
consumer and capital goods. Manufacturing is
the principal activity in this category, but
construction and power utilities are also
included.
 Tertiary industries constitute the service sector of
the economy.
Material- solid, liquid, or gaseous form.
Solid material: slabs, sheets, bars, wire,
etc., which may be rigid, soft, or
amorphous.
Items may be segregated according
to some characteristic or all may be
commingled in a mixed container.
 They might have to be handled as
discrete items, or portions of a bulk supply
may be handled. If bulk, as coal or
powder, their size, size distribution, flow
ability, angle of repose, abrasiveness,
contaminants, weight, etc., must be
known.
Before any material can be held, fed,
sorted, and transported, all important
characteristics of its form must be known.
Material Handling
 isthe movement, protection, storage
and control of materials and products
throughout manufacturing, warehousing,
distribution, consumption and disposal.
As a process, material handling
incorporates a wide range of manual,
semi-automated and automated
equipment and systems that support
logistics and make the supply chain
work.
 Factors to Consider in Designing
Materials Handling Systems
 Form of Material  Integration with other equipment
and system
 Characteristics of Material
 Degree of control required
 Original Position of the Material
 Flow Demands  Labor Skills Available

 Final Position  Degree of Mechanization Desired

 In-Transit Condition  Capital Available
 Handling Equipment Available  Return of Investment
 Form and Position needed at  Expected Life of Installation
Destination
 Classifications of Material Handling

 1. Holding, feeding, metering • 7. Automatic guided vehicle

 2. Transferring, positioning transporting
 3. Lifting, hoisting, elevating • 8. Robot manipulating
 4. Dragging, pulling, pushing • 9. Identifying, sorting,
controlling
 5. Loading, carrying,
excavating • 10. Storing, warehousing
 6. Conveyor moving and • 11. Order picking, packing
handling • 12. Loading, shipping
 Material
Holding,
Feeding and
Metering
Holding Devices – Devices used
to hold material should be
selected on the basis of the form
of the material, what operations,
if any, are to be done to it while
being held (e.g., heated, mixed,
macerated, dyed, etc.), and
how it is to be fed out of the
MATERIAL FEEDING AND
METERING MODES
Material can be fed from its holding
devices to processing areas in
several modes:
1. Randomly or by selection of
individual items
2. Pretested or untested
3. Linked together or separated
4. Oriented or in any orientation
5. Continuous flow or interruptible flow
6. Specified feed rate or any rate of
flow
7. Live (powered) or unpowered
action
8. With specific spaces between items
or not
The feeding and metering devices selected depend on the
above factors
and the properties of the material. Some, but not all, possible
devices
include:
1. Pumps, dispensers, applicators
2. Feedscrews, reciprocating rams, pistons
3. Oscillating blades, sweeps, arms
4. Belts, chains, rotaries, turntables
5. Vibratory bowl feeders, shakers
6. Escapements, mechanisms, pick-and- place devices
Feeders
 When material is drawn from a hopper or bin to
a conveyor, an automatic feeder should be
used (unless the material is dry and free-running,
e.g., grain).
 Vibrating Feeders The
vibrating feeder consists of a
plate inclined downward
slightly and vibrated
 (1)by a high-speed
unbalanced pulley,
 (2) by electromagnetic
vibrations from one or more
solenoids, or
 (3)by the slower pulsations
secured by mounting the
plate on rearward-inclined
leaf springs.
Conveyor Moving and Handling
 Conveyors are primarily horizontal-movement, fixed-path,
constant speed material handling systems. However, they
often contain inclined sections to change the elevation of the
material as it is moving, switches to permit alternate paths and
“power-and-free” capabilities to allow the temporary slowing,
stopping, or accumulating of material.
 Conveyors are often used as integral components of
assembly systems. They bring the correct material, at the
required rate, to each worker and then to the next operator in
the assembly sequence.
 Overhead conveyor systems are defined in two
general classifications: the basic trolley conveyor and
the power-and-free conveyor, each of which serves
a definite purpose.
 Trolley
conveyors, often referred to as overhead
power conveyors, consist of a series of trolleys or
wheels supported from or within an overhead track
and connected by an endless propelling means,
such as chain, cable, or other linkages. Individual
loads are usually suspended from the trolleys or
wheels.
 Trolley conveyors are utilized for transportation or
storage of loads suspended from one conveyor which
follows a single fixed path. They are normally used in
applications where a balanced, continuous production
is required.
 Power-and-free conveyor systems consist of at least one
power conveyor, but usually more, where the individual
loads are suspended from one or more free trolleys (not
permanently connected to the propelling means)
which are conveyor-propelled through all or part of the
system. Additional portions of the system may have
manual or gravity means of propelling the trolleys.
 Non-Carrying Conveyors
 Flight conveyors are used for moving granular, lumpy, or pulverized
materials along a horizontal path or on an incline seldom greater
than about 40 degrees.
 The flight conveyor of usual construction should not be specified for
a material that is actively abrasive, such as damp sand and ashes.
 The screw, or spiral, conveyor is used quite widely for pulverized or
granular, noncorrosive, nonabrasive materials when the required
capacity is moderate, when the distance is not more than about
200 ft (61 m), and when the path is not too steep. It usually costs
substantially less than any other type of conveyor and is readily
made dust tight by a simple cover plate.
Types of Screw Conveyors
 Short Pitch
 Variable Pitch
 Cut Flights
 Ribbon
 Paddle
 Chutes
 Bulk Material If the material is fragile and cannot be set through a
simple vertical chute, a retarding chute may be specified.
 Lumpy material such as coke and large coal, difficult to control
when flowing from a bin, can be handled by a chain-controlled
feeder chute with a screen of heavy endless chains hung on a
sprocket shaft
 Unit Loads Mechanical handling of unit loads, such as boxes, barrels,
packages, castings, crates, and palletized loads, calls for methods
and mechanisms entirely different from those adapted to the
movement of bulk materials.
 Spiral chutes are adapted for the direct lowering of unit loads of
various shapes, sizes, and weights, so long as their slide
characteristics do not vary widely.
CARRYING CONVEYORS
 Apron conveyors are specified for granular or lumpy materials. Since
the load is carried and not dragged, less power is required than for
screw or scraper conveyors.
Bucket Conveyors and Elevators
 Open-top bucket carriers are similar to apron conveyors, except
that dished or bucket-shaped receptacles take the place of the flat
or corrugated apron plates used on the apron conveyor. The
carriers will operate on steeper inclines than apron conveyors (up to
70 deg), as the buckets prevent material from sliding back.
 V-bucket carriers are used for elevating and conveying
nonabrasive materials, principally coal when it must be elevated
and conveyed with one piece of apparatus.
 Pivoted-bucket carriers are used primarily where the path is a run-
around in a vertical plane. Their chief application has been for the
dual duty of handling coal and ashes in boiler plants. They require
less power than V-bucket carriers, as the material is carried and not
dragged on the horizontal run.
 Bucket elevators are of two types: (1) chain-and-bucket, where the
buckets are attached to one or two chains; and (2) belt-and-
bucket, where the buckets are attached to canvas or rubber belts.
BELT CONVEYOR
 The belt conveyor is a heavy-duty conveyor available for
transporting large tonnages over paths beyond the range of any
other type of mechanical conveyor. The capacity may be several
thousand tons per hour, and the distance several miles.
 Roller Conveyors
 The principle involved in gravity roller conveyors is the control of
motion due to gravity by interposing an antifriction trackage set at a
definite grade.
 Roller conveyors are used in the movement of all sorts of package
goods with smooth surfaces which are sufficiently rigid to prevent
sagging between rollers—in warehouses, brickyards, building-supply
yards, department stores, post offices, and the manufacturing and
shipping departments of industrial manufacturers.
 Pneumatic Conveyors
 The pneumatic conveyor transports dry, free-flowing, granular material in suspension within
a pipe or duct by means of a high-velocity airstream or by the energy of expanding
compressed air within a comparatively dense column of fluidized or aerated material.
 Principal Uses:
 Dust Collection
 Conveying Soft Materials (flour, feeds, salt cake, lime, sawdust, etc…)
 Conveying Hard Materials (silica, fly ash, cement, etc…)
Hydraulic Conveyors
 Hydraulic conveyors are used for handling boiler-plant ash or slag
from an ash hopper or slag tank located under the furnace. The
material is flushed from the hopper to a grinder, which discharges to
a jet pump or a mechanical pump for conveying to a disposal area
or a dewatering bin.
Automatic Guided Vehicles and
Robots
 Driverless towing tractors guided by wires embedded into or affixed
onto the floor have been available since the early 1950s. Currently,
the addition of computer controls, sensors that can monitor remote
conditions, real-time feedback, switching capabilities, and a whole
new family of vehicles have created automatic guided vehicle
systems (AGVs) that compete with industrial trucks and conveyors as
material handling devices.
 AGV equipment can be categorized as:
 1. Driverless tractors
 2. Guided pallet trucks
 3. Unit load transporters and platform carriers
 4. Assembly or tool bed robot transporters
A robot is a machine constructed as an
assemblage of links joined so that they can
be articulated into desired positions by a
reprogrammable controller and precision
actuators to perform a variety of tasks.
Robots range from simple devices to very
complex and “intelligent” systems by virtue
of added sensors, computers, and special
features.
Some of the common uses of industrial
robots include:
loading and unloading machines, transferring
work from one machine to another, assembling,
cutting, drilling, grinding, deburring, welding,
gluing, painting, inspecting, testing, packing,
palletizing, and many others.
 Robots, being programmable multi-jointed
machines, fall between humans and fixed-
purpose machines in their utility.
 Replaces humans = in jobs that are
dangerous, dirty, dull, or demeaning, and for
doing things beyond human capabilities.
 Better than “hard” automation
 They are ideal for operations calling for high
consistency, cycle after cycle, yet are
changeable when necessary.
 In contrast to “fixed” machines, they are
“flexible,” meaning that they are
reprogrammable.
Robot Specifications
 Configurations – Cartesian, Cylindrical, Polar or Spherical,
Revolute or Jointed-Arm
 Articulations – Roll, Pitch and Yaw
 Size – Physical size of the robot
 Workspace – Extent of Robot’s Reach
 Payload – Weight that can be carried
 Speed – Speed (Acceleration/Deceleration) and Cycle Time
(Complete one full cycle)
 Accuracy – Where its control point go to how it is programmed
 Repeatability – Precision
 Resolution – Smallest Incremental Change