The Machine Skate is designed to Efficiently Transport Heavy Equipment
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The frequent moving of products and equipment of course is considerably more prevalent in industrial workplaces than in office settings. One of the reasons that industrial facilities such as warehouses and distribution centers have wide-open designs with few walls and corridors is so that the frequent moving of items can be done with as few obstructions as possible. Industrial-use moving equipment for relatively light items includes carts, hand trucks, and dollies. Equipment for heavier items includes pallet trucks, portable product lifts, drum carriers, and forklifts. What is the moving equipment of choice for moving industrial items that are extremely heavy, such as pieces of machinery weighing many tons? The
machine skate is among a select few items that are excellent for this task. Please take a few moments to read the following brief article concerning machine skates and how they are used to move extremely heavy items.
There’s this often-told joke: “How do you move a three-ton elephant?” The answer is “very carefully.” In many industrial facilities, the time often comes when someone needs to ask, “How do we move that three-ton piece of machinery?” “Very carefully” remains an excellent answer, but of course it’s incomplete. The full answer is, “Very carefully with machine skates.” Also known as
machinery movers,
machinery rollers, and
machinery carriers, machine rollers are among the few pieces of
equipment handling devices that will do the job when something extremely heavy needs to be brought into a building or moved from one location to another within a facility. The
machine skate, in essence, is a temporary caster that is placed under each of the four corners of a heavy machinery item for transportation.
The machinery skate is
material handling equipment typically made of a combination of iron and steel. When a piece of heavy equipment is ready to be moved, it first is lifted a short distance off the floor with an overhead lifting device. While the equipment is being hoisted, a worker places four
machine dolly units under it in proper locations. The heavy machinery is then lowered onto the
machine mover units. Once the heavy equipment is firmly resting on each
machine carrier, a worker then attaches “steering bar” to one of the machine rollers, and the heavy equipment is ready to be pulled to its new location. Most top
machinery roller models are designed to roll over cracked and pitted flooring, increasing their efficiency.
Machine skate does possess rather stunning effectiveness when one considers their small size in combination with the fact that, despite being non-motorized, they enable a single worker to transport an object weighing a number of tons. In addition, the top-quality machine skate possess steel ball bearings, allowing the rollers’ swivel tops to rotate a full 360 degrees. This maximum-rotation capability allows the operator to steer and turn the heavy item with considerable precision. When the heavy equipment arrives at its new location, it is hoisted a short distance once more, and the machine skates are removed and returned to storage until they are needed for a future moving job. It is the customer’s responsibility to verify correctness of fit for applications.
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