Top 6 Material Handling Equipment Options

Our top material handling equipment option is the ultimate classic – the forklift truck.

Used in hundreds of thousands of buildings, warehouses and sites across the UK, the forklift truck – also called a pallet truck – is hugely versatile across a single floor. The massive range of fixings for different operational requirements makes this our top pick.

Common uses: moving palleted goods across flat areas; loading trucks and shelving; lifting and stacking large items

In close second place comes the Goods Lift, another commonly used and really versatile item.

Goods lifts come in a huge range of shapes and sizes – from small dumb waiters to massive 2 ton goods lifts.

Goods lifts are usually associated with logistics and warehouse management, allowing more efficient handling of goods between incoming, warehouse and outgoing where multiple floors are in use.

Common uses: warehouse logistics; upper floor storage; movement of equipment

Another common and really quite useful material handling equipment option is a bit less heavy duty than our top 2. The humble hand pump pallet truck has saved manual handling across the world and made moving palletised deliveries quick and easy.

Often seen in stock rooms, the pallet truck is a low cost and simple solution for moving heavier items around single storeys. Coupled with our 2nd pick, the goods lift, it can support moving items between floors too.

Common uses: transport of deliveries to store rooms; generally reducing manual handling

At number 4 we have the conveyor belt – a simple yet effective way to automate movement of items across, up or down a room!

Conveyor belts are pretty versatile – add one in almost any direction to move goods or items from one place to another with no effort required. These are usually part of an automation system and are associated closely with factory production. They can also be used for warehouse logistics where specific paths are regularly followed, or to move people (think travelators!).

Common uses: factory production lines; common movement channels; people movement

The number 5 slot is another flexible option, the scissor lift table. Ideal for a huge range of lifting requirements, the scissor lift table is generally used for either 2 storey lifting, or raising/shunting across a variable distance.

Scissor lift tables can be used for bringing equipment, tools or surfaces up to the correct height to work on. They can also shunt items horizontally, preventing the need to move manually or lift in any way.

As a piece of lifting equipment, they can be a simple platform for moving materials between two floors, or perhaps a mezzanine or second height location such as a van. They can also be clad to make a simple lift and can be used for materials and goods in this way.

Common uses: height adjustable working surface; heavy equipment shunting; low mezzanine lifting

In 6th place comes the easy to use – and fairly self explanatory – automated shelf stacker.

Similar to the pallet truck, this material handling equipment option is moved around by hand, and uses a hand pump or powered motion to lift pallets, boxes and other goods from the floor to a shelf or racking unit. Easy!

Common uses: putting goods/materials onto warehouse racking; loading vans and trucks with goods.