ABSTRACT
There are two types of materials that can be moved by equipment: bulk or unit material. Bulk material, stored and moved in large volume, often comes as powders, granules, or liquids. Large containers, vessels, or bulk carriers are used for this material. There are many kinds of often inexpensive equipment that can do the holding, turning, carrying, pushing, pulling, lowering, and lifting of loads that would otherwise be performed by persons. Equipment must not only be selected to be able to perform the material handling job, but must also fit the human operator. A reasonable distinction can be made between equipment that provides assistance to the material handler at the workplace and equipment that provides for in-process movement between work stations. Unfortunately, some material movement equipment such as cranes, hoists, powered and hand trucks, and particularly fork lift trucks have shown an alarming lack of consideration of human factors and safety principles in their design.
