A Google search for “industrial carts” may result in a picture of a bell captain pushing a luggage cart. One might find a picture of a two-wheel aluminum hand truck, or a cocktail cart. Adding searches for heavy-duty industrial carts might help narrow the search; adding material handling to the search seems to be equally helpful. The results may still show Utility Carts, Service Carts, Steel Carts, Wire Carts, and other irrelevant results.
Topper Industrial carts are best discovered by function. The Topper Mother/Daughter Cart Delivery System eliminates lineside forklift deliveries with the mother-daughter cart which can pull a variety of different daughter cart types. Engineered with a diamond pattern for flexibility, the large mother cart frame can accommodate multiple, different daughter carts—including a static cart, a tilt cart, a rotation cart, a kit cart, or a tube and joint cart and more—with different caster arrangements.
When locked together, the carts are tugged as one unit, supporting unlimited lineside manufacturing deliveries and applications without the need for forklifts. At the assembly line, the operator swaps out a full daughter cart for an empty one and can work directly out of the carts.
Since Topper Industrial is the North American pioneer for the Fork Truck Free (FTF) movement for twenty years, 2019 will see the greatest reduction of manufacturing facilities’ current fleet of fork trucks by replacing some of them with tugger and cart systems. FTF carts are revolutionizing the way to move materials and part of Industry 4.0 initiatives which recognize that fork trucks are no longer the safest or most efficient way to move material on the plant floor.
Unmanned tuggers work with powered and non-powered carts in a virtually limitless range of configurations. Topper Material Handling Heavy Duty Industrial Carts have features and flexibility which allow for production complexities, previously handled by fork trucks.
Manufacturing material flow is dramatically impacted with a tugger and cart system, replacing one-load-at-a-time deliveries by fork trucks with Topper carts as trains, or a linked series of multiple carts, carrying multiple loads in one trip. The carts themselves may be loaded by a fork truck, but a tugger handles the deliveries. Unlike a fork truck, Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs) travel along a pre-determined route and at a limited speed, while manned-style driven tug operators have greater visibility because the loads trail behind instead of riding on elevated forks in front of the driver.
Parts deliveries to a production line is challenged as horizontal space is at a premium; the flexibility of cart-based solutions makes more sense from a return-on-investment perspective. Sara Pearson Spector wrote in Material Handing 24/7, “Delivering smaller lots more frequently in kitted and sequenced cart orders is an engineered response to the complexity of mass customization. Building multiple product lines on the same production floor or offering a selection of options to customize a standard product, require the flexibility that carts can provide. The carts have evolved into specialized tools used in engineered processes to move materials as efficiently as possible.”
Topper Industrial is exhibiting at ProMat in Chicago at Booth #S4812 from April 8 – 11. Topper Industrial education session is titled, “Why is Cart Delivery in High Demand?” in Theater I at 1:30 pm on Tuesday, April 9, 2019 and repeated on Wednesday, April 10, 2019 at 10:30 am in Theater E.
About Topper Industrial
For more than twenty years, Topper Industrial, (www.topperindustrial.com) has been a leading manufacturer of material handling carts and equipment solutions. Topper Industrial designs and builds industrial delivery carts, cart lifts, lifts & tilts, material handling racks, steel containers, casters, tube & joint and industrial cart parts & components. Topper Industrial specializes in services to Manufacturing, Fulfillment, Warehousing and the Distribution Sectors. Topper Industrial’s services include, but are not limited to: Design & customization, manufacturing & production, site analysis & planning and implementation justification. Topper’s material handling solutions make delivering material line side more effective through more efficient practices.
Topper Industrial is a proud member of MHI. Follow on Twitter @TopperInd or on LinkedIn.