Fundamental of Mechanical Engineering (3300015)

EXPERIMENT 11
Aim: To study the types of material handling system.
Objective: To get the basic knowledge about material handling system.
11.1. Introduction:
Material handling is defined as movement of material of any form like raw, packaged, loose,
solid, liquid, gas, light, or heavy from one location to another location either in restricted or
unrestricted path by manual or mechanical aids. The movement may be horizontal, vertical or
may be combination of both.
In simple language, material handling is loading, moving and unloading of materials. Material
handing is a necessary and significant component of any productive activity. Material handling
at any level is necessary in daily household activities, in commercial trades, in industrial
processes, in production processes.

Note: All the figures in this experiment not required to draw.

11.2. Classification of material handling Equipments:

1. According to types of movements:
a. Hoisting equipments
b. Conveying equipments
c. Surface and overhead equipments
2. According to working area:
a. For limited or restricted movement
 Area restricted
 Line restricted
 Position restricted
b. For unlimited or unrestricted movement
3. According to position:
a. Portable equipment
b. Fixed equipment
4. According to power source:
a. Non powered equipment
b. Power equipment
Department of Mechanical Engineering Prepared by: NJ Parmar
Government polytechnic Porbandar 11.1
 Fundamental of Mechanical Engineering (3300015)

5. According to special application:

a. Can conveyor
b. Bottle conveyor
c. Wire and cable conveyor
d. Drag conveyor
e. Sortation (sorting-grouping) conveyor
f. Trolley conveyor
6. According to direction of movement
a. for horizontal movement (transportation movement)
b. for vertical movement (hoisting equipment)
c. for mixed direction movement (hoisting plus transportation equipment)

11.3. Application of material handling equipments:

11.3.1. Hoisting equipment:
Hoisting equipment is a general term for any equipment that can be used for lifting and
lowering the loads. This includes jacks, chain pulley block, tackle, hoists, tripod, forklifts,
elevator, lift, cranes etc.
11.3.1.1. Jacks:
A jack is a mechanical device used to lift heavy loads or apply great forces. Generally,
mechanical jack employs a screw thread for lifting heavy equipment. The most common form is
a car jack, floor jack or garage jack which lifts vehicles so that maintenance can be performed.
Maximum lifting capacity is 1.5 to 3 ton.

Fig.11.1 Jack
Department of Mechanical Engineering Prepared by: NJ Parmar
Government polytechnic Porbandar 11.2
 Fundamental of Mechanical Engineering (3300015)

11.3.1.2. Winch:
A winch is a mechanical device that is used to wind up/wind out wire rope or to adjust the
tension of a rope or wire rope. Wire rope is also known as ‘cable’ or ‘wire cable’. Simplest
winch is consisting of a spool and attached hand crank. The pool is also as winch drum. More
sophisticated winch has gear assembly and can be powered by electric, hydraulic, pneumatic or
internal combustion drives. Some may include solenoid brake and or a mechanical brake or
ratchet and pawl device that prevents it from unwinding unless pawl is retracted.

Fig.11.2 Winch
Department of Mechanical Engineering Prepared by: NJ Parmar
Government polytechnic Porbandar 11.3
 Fundamental of Mechanical Engineering (3300015)

11.3.1.3. Hoist:
A hoist is a device used for lifting or lowering a load by means of a drum or lift wheel around
which rope or chain wraps. It may be operated manually, hydraulically, electrically or
pneumatically and may use chain, fiber or wire rope as its lifting medium. The load is attached
to the hoist by means of a lifting hook. Various types of hoist are shown in fig11.3 below:

Fig.11.3 types of hoist

Department of Mechanical Engineering Prepared by: NJ Parmar
Government polytechnic Porbandar 11.4
 Fundamental of Mechanical Engineering (3300015)

11.3.2. Conveyors:
Conveying equipments, commonly applicable for material handling, move materials from one
location to another in horizontal direction, vertical direction or mixed direction. Conveyors are
especially useful in applications involving the transportation of heavy or bulky materials.
Conveying equipments allow quick and efficient transportation for a wide variety of materials,
which make them very popular in the material handling and packaging industries. 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.
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 used, not only for
transporting material, but also for in-process storage. They may be straight, curved, closed-
loop, irreversible, or reversible.

Department of Mechanical Engineering Prepared by: NJ Parmar

Government polytechnic Porbandar 11.5
 Fundamental of Mechanical Engineering (3300015)

Various types of conveyors are shown in fig.11.4 below:

Fig.11.4 types of conveyors

Department of Mechanical Engineering Prepared by: NJ Parmar

Government polytechnic Porbandar 11.6
 Fundamental of Mechanical Engineering (3300015)

Fig.11.4 types of conveyors

Department of Mechanical Engineering Prepared by: NJ Parmar
Government polytechnic Porbandar 11.7
 Fundamental of Mechanical Engineering (3300015)

11.3.3. Surface handling equipments:

Hand trucks, platform truck, industrial truck and fork lift are the commonly used surface
handling equipments. Generally, all these trucks are utilized to handle large quantity of unit
goods by cube concept. Cube concept in handling of unit material is that by building a cube
large quantity of unit goods are handled and stored at one time efficiency instead of single unit.
Examples of cube-facilitating devices include pallets, bins, drums and crates.
A pallet is a low platform, usually constructed of wood, incorporating openings for the forks of
a lift truck to enter. Such openings are designed to enable a lift truck to pick up and transport
the pallet containing the cubed goods. Lift truck is a general term for a family of pallet
handling/transporting equipments. Such equipments range from manually propelled low lift
devices to internal combustion and electric powered ride on high lift devices. Such equipments
are widely utilized in industry as well as in day to day distribution of goods in warehouses,
large stores, and transport depots etc. such equipments are also known as industrial trucks.
Schematic diagrams of some familiar surface handling equipment are shown in fig.11.5 below:

Fig11.5 Surface handling equipments

Department of Mechanical Engineering Prepared by: NJ Parmar
Government polytechnic Porbandar 11.8
 Fundamental of Mechanical Engineering (3300015)

Fig11.5 Surface handling equipments

Department of Mechanical Engineering Prepared by: NJ Parmar

Government polytechnic Porbandar 11.9
 Fundamental of Mechanical Engineering (3300015)

Fig11.5 Surface handling equipments

Department of Mechanical Engineering Prepared by: NJ Parmar
Government polytechnic Porbandar 11.10
 Fundamental of Mechanical Engineering (3300015)

11.3.3.1. Forklift trucks:

Amongst the powered industrial trucks family, most versatile, useful and widely used
equipment is industrial fork lift. These are self-loading, counter balanced, powered, wheeled
vehicles, with the operator seating on the vehicle, designed to raise, move and lower load on
the forks or other attachments fastened to a mast which is fixed In front of the vehicle to allow
lifting and stacking of loads. Forklift trucks are used for lifting, lowering, stacking, unshackling,
loading and unloading and maneuvering of medium to large weight, uniform shaped unit loads,
intermittently.

Fig11.6 Forklift
Department of Mechanical Engineering Prepared by: NJ Parmar
Government polytechnic Porbandar 11.11
 Fundamental of Mechanical Engineering (3300015)

11.3.4. Cranes:
A crane is a machine, equipped with a hoist, wire ropes or chains, and sheaves, that can be used
both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. Crane is mainly used for lifting
heavy things and transporting them to other places. Generally, crane uses one or more simple
mechanism to achieve mechanical advantage in handling loads. So crane is useful in material
handling purpose beyond the normal capability of a human. Cranes are commonly employed in
a transport industry for the loading and unloading of freight, in the construction industry for
the movement of materials and in manufacturing industry for the assembling of heavy
equipment. Schematic diagram of some popular cranes are shown in fig.11.7 below:

Fig.11.7 Cranes

Department of Mechanical Engineering Prepared by: NJ Parmar

Government polytechnic Porbandar 11.12
 Fundamental of Mechanical Engineering (3300015)

Fig.11.7 Crane

Department of Mechanical Engineering Prepared by: NJ Parmar

Government polytechnic Porbandar 11.13
 Fundamental of Mechanical Engineering (3300015)

Fig.11.7 Cranes

Department of Mechanical Engineering Prepared by: NJ Parmar

Government polytechnic Porbandar 11.14
 Fundamental of Mechanical Engineering (3300015)

Fig.11.7 Cranes

Department of Mechanical Engineering Prepared by: NJ Parmar

Government polytechnic Porbandar 11.15