Pallet Jack Wheels And Castors
Pallet Jack Wheels And Castors
Wheels and castors seem to get confused as being one and the same thing. This is far from the truth and confusion comes about when people use the term wheel and castor to refer to the same thing. I have heard pallet jack wheels being referred to as castors and this is simply not the case. Therefore, to clarify and help you to cut down on the confusion the next time you need to shop for wheels or castors I will explain the two.
Wheel Construction And Material
A wheel will rotate on an axle and this axle will pass through the center of the wheel. Wheels are also either solid or made with spokes and can be produced with several types of materials. When a wheel is made from one material only, it will be solid; but when it comes in more than one material, it can either be spokes or solid.
The two main materials that you will hear mentioned for pallet jack wheels are polyurethane and nylon. It is misinformation on polyurethane wheels that they are protective of facility flooring. This is just simply not true. In fact, the only type of wheel that is truly protective is a soft rubber wheel. This is just not possible for the most part for pallet jacks. Therefore, you need to understand that polyurethane and nylon are your real options; just do not fail to realize that polyurethane is not protective of flooring.
Castors Explained
To explain castors so that you have an understanding of what they are and what they are not, let me point out that one of the parts of a castor is a wheel. A wheel is part of a castor that does not make it a castor. The other part of the castor is the frame that holds the wheel. Castor frames come in swivel and rigid versions, with the most popular being the swivel that people are familiar with on furniture dollies.
In the instances where the equipment is needed to move in a straight line the use of both the swivel and the rigid types are used on the equipment. These types of castors are recommended on pallet jacks where the load is required to be able to move straight down the facility isles. For this, there will be two swivels and two rigid used in combinations with each other. The handle of the pallet jack will be located in the area of the swivel castors. This allows for ease of control and reduces the amount of physical exertion on the operator when moving the equipment under a load.
The problem also is that confusion is created when sales representatives also fail to realize that pallet jack wheels are part of the castor and they are not the castors themselves. Now that you understand the difference between a wheel and a castor, you can easily cut down the amount of misunderstanding that can ensue when needing to purchase one or the other.
Ernest Jarquio is a successful Webmaster and publisher of Forklifts-n-Pallets.com. He provides more resources on topics such as pallet jack wheels, pallet stackers and Nissan forklifts that you can research on his website even while lounging in your living room.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ernest_Jarquio
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Sunday, May 31, 2009
Automated forklift trucks
In order to decrease work wages, reduce operational cost and improve productivity, automated forklifts have also been developed. Automated forklifts are also called forked automated guided vehicles and are already available from a growing number of suppliers.
Counterbalanced forklift components
A typical counterbalanced forklift contains the following components:
Image of an electric forklift with component descriptions
- Truck Frame - is the base of the machine to which the mast, axles, wheels, counterweight, overhead guard and power source are attached. The frame may have fuel and hydraulic fluid tanks constructed as part of the frame assembly.
- Counterweight - is a heavy cast iron mass attached to the rear of the forklift truck frame. The purpose of the counterweight is to counterbalance the load being lifted. In an electric forklift the large lead-acid battery itself may serve as part of the counterweight.
- Cab - is the area that contains a seat for the operator along with the control pedals, steering wheel, levers, switches and a dashboard containing operator readouts. The cab area may be open air or enclosed, but it is covered by the cage-like overhead guard assembly.
- Overhead Guard - is a metal roof supported by posts at each corner of the cab that helps protect the operator from any falling objects. On some forklifts, the overhead guard is part of the frame assembly
- Power Source - may consist of an internal combustion engine that can be powered by LP gas, CNG gas, gasoline or diesel fuel. Electric forklifts are powered by either a battery or fuel cells that provide power to electric motors. The motors may be either DC or AC types.
- Tilt Cylinders - are hydraulic cylinders that are mounted to the truck frame and the mast. The tilt cylinders pivot the mast to assist in engaging a load.
- Mast - is the vertical assembly that does the work of raising and lowering the load. It is made up of interlocking rails that also provide lateral stability. The interlocking rails may either have rollers or bushings as guides. The mast is either hydraulically operated by one or more hydraulic cylinders or it may be chain operated with a hydraulic motor providing motive power. It may be mounted to the front axle or the frame of the forklift.
- Carriage - is the component to which the forks or other attachments mount. It is mounted into and moves up and down the mast rails by means of chains or by being directly attached to the hydraulic cylinder. Like the mast, the carriage may have either rollers or bushings to guide it in the interlocking mast rails.
- Load Back Rest - is a rack-like extension that is either bolted or welded to the carriage in order to prevent the load from shifting backward when the carriage is lifted to full height.
- Attachments - may consist of forks or tines that are the L-shaped members that engage the load. A variety of other types of material handling attachments are available. These include sideshifters, slipsheet attachments, carton clamps, multipurpose clamps, rotators, fork positioners, carpet poles, pole handlers, container handlers, roll clamps and many others.
Attachments
Below is a list of common forklift attachments:
- Sideshifter - is a hydraulic attachment that allows the operator to move the tines (forks) and backrest laterally. This allows easier placement of a load without having to reposition the truck.
- Rotator - To aid the handling of skids that may have become excessively tilted and other specialty material handling needs some forklifts are fitted with an attachment that allows the tines to be rotated. This type of attachment may also be used for dumping containers for quick unloading.
- Fork Positioner - is a hydraulic attachment that moves the tines (forks) together or apart. This removes the need for the operator to manually adjust the tines for different sized loads.
- Roll and Barrel Clamp Attachment - A mechanical or hydraulic attachment used to squeeze the item to be moved. It is used for handling barrels, kegs, or paper rolls. This type of attachment may also have a rotate function. The rotate function would help an operator to insert a vertically stored paper into the horizontal intake of a printing press for example.
- Pole Attachments - In some locations, such as carpet warehouses, a long metal pole is used instead of forks to lift carpet rolls. Similar devices, though much larger, are used to pick up metal coils.
- Carton and Multipurpose Clamp Attachments - are hydraulic attachments that allow the operator to open and close around a load, squeezing it to pick it up. Products like cartons, boxes and bales can be moved with this type attachment. With these attachments in use, the forklift truck is sometimes referred to as a clamp truck.
- Slip Sheet Attachment (Push - Pull) - is a hydraulic attachment that reaches forward, clamps onto a slip sheet and draws the slip sheet onto wide and thin metal forks for transport. The attachment will push the slip sheet and load off the forks for placement.
- Drum Handler Attachment - is a mechanical attachment that slides onto the tines (forks). It usually has a spring loaded jaw that grips the top lip edge of a drum for transport. Another type grabs around the drum in a manner similar to the roll or barrel attachments.
- Man Basket - a lift platform that slides onto the tines (forks) and is meant for hoisting workers. The man basket has railings to keep the person from falling and brackets for attaching a safety harness. Also, a stap or chain is used to attach the man basket to the carriage of the forklift.
- Telescopic Forks - are hydraulic attachments that allow the operator to operate in warehouse design for "double-deep stacking", which means that two pallet shelves are placed behind each other without any aisle between them.
article source from : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forklift
