How Technology Makes Heavy Equipment Movement Easier
If you find that you and your team are often having to work with a lot of heavy equipment, then you’ve likely often wished for better ways to get it done. Even if no one is harmed in the process of moving heavy equipment, you should know that around 300,000 people in the UK are suffering from back pain as a result of this type of labour.
Well, with the introduction of new technologies, that problem is slowly becoming less and less troubling. There are now tools that can make heavy equipment movement much easier for your team.
Material handling process
On a daily basis, businesses typically handle large amounts of materials. Whether it’s to transport materials around a warehouse, to and from a factory, or delivering them to the shop floor. Typically, these materials will be handled using either vehicles or carts to make them easier to move around buildings
A guide to moving heavy equipment: 6 things to consider
As it is, when you’re dealing with heavy equipment movement within your building, you have a number of options. All of which are designed to make your job much easier, and less dangerous for the handler. Roller Skids, Lift Buddies, Toe Jacks, Lifting Straps, Air Bearings, and Rotating Dollies are tools that you might have come into contact with before and they all have their benefits.
Roller Skids
For when you’re limited on space and working in a delicate environment - roller skids are a handy tool. They’re a small and easy-to-use transportation tool that you place your heavy equipment onto, making it easy to roll around. Larger machines or materials might require more to bear the weight, but it will prevent you from needing to drag the load around - potentially damaging the floors.
Lift Buddy
If you’re lifting on your own and just looking for a little helping hand, you might find that the lift buddy is a necessary piece of equipment. It’s made with smaller tasks in mind and not designed for lifting extremely heavy machinery. However, it can be very useful to help you lift something that might usually require more than one person - allowing for a more efficient work environment.
Toe Jacks
While toe jacks aren’t made for moving machinery or materials themselves, they can be a very useful tool to pair with your other moving equipment. For example, when you’re using the roller skids, you need to be able to lift the equipment to put the skids in place. Toe jacks are a great solution to ensure you and your team can lift heavy objects without placing any risk on their bodies.
Lifting Straps
When lifting heavy materials without any heavy-duty equipment, one of the bigger problems you’re going to face is the pressure that’s being put on you. Lifting straps are designed to help distribute the weight into a better position - lowering the risks of you injuring your back. It’s a simple tool that you wrap around your shoulders or forearms, but it can make manual lifting much easier and safer.
Air Bearings
The heavier the equipment, the more difficult it is to get moving. If your team is faced with the task of moving heavy equipment, then something like air bearings would be considered. A platform on which your equipment would be placed uses pressurized air to keep it off of the ground. Tons of equipment can be made much more manoeuvrable, and you won’t have to worry about the floor being damaged - it’s gliding on the thin layer of pressurized air beneath it.
Rotating Dollies
Working with heavy equipment in more compact spaces can make movement quite a pain, as you’re not going to get heavy-duty movement equipment such as forklifts in there quite as easy. Most workplaces would use something like a rotating dolly to place their equipment on, which can tens of tons. It’s a small platform with rotating wheels, meaning even in a small environment you can safely transport heavy equipment around.