Loading Equipment

Loading Equipment

Loading Equipment are characterized by substantial uninsulated areas and large heat sinks. Standard calculation methods are insufficient to provide the proper heat tracing solution. A typical application for loading equipment is heat tracing transfer lines for liquids and gasses in the chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical and food industries. In a large number of cases this type of equipment needs to be heat traced, either steam or electric, to keep the product flowing under the most severe conditions. However, this application is generally underestimated as far as the complexity of the heat tracing design is concerned.

Applications

• Marine loading arms • Top and bottom loading arms for truck and rail transportation • Pharmaceutical and food industry

Types

Storage and Handling Equipment

Storage equipment is usually limited to non-automated examples, which are grouped in with engineered systems. Storage equipment is used to hold or buffer materials during “downtimes,” or times when they are not being transported. These periods could refer to temporary pauses during long-term transportation or long-term storage designed to allow the buildup of stock. The majority of storage equipment refers to pallets, shelves or racks onto which materials may be stacked in an orderly manner to await transportation or consumption. Many companies have investigated increased efficiency possibilities in storage equipment by designing proprietary packaging that allows materials or products of a certain type to conserve space while in inventory.

Engineered Systems

Engineered systems cover a variety of units that work cohesively to enable storage and transportation. They are often automated. A good example of an engineered system is an Automated Storage and Retrieval System, often abbreviated AS/RS, which is a large automated organizational structure involving racks, aisles and shelves accessible by a “shuttle” system of retrieval. The shuttle system is a mechanized cherry picker that can be used by a worker or can perform fully automated functions to quickly locate a storage item’s location and quickly retrieve it for other uses.

Industrial Trucks

Industrial trucks refer to the different kinds of transportation items and vehicles used to move materials and products in materials handling. These transportation devices can include small hand-operated trucks, pallet-jacks, and various kinds of forklifts. These trucks have a variety of characteristics to make them suitable for different operations. Some trucks have forks, as in a forklift, or a flat surface with which to lift items, while some trucks require a separate piece of equipment for loading. Trucks can also be manual or powered lift and operation can be walk or ride, requiring a user to manually push them or to ride along on the truck. A stack truck can be used to stack items, while a non-stack truck is typically used for transportation and not for loading.