Tubular steel is a versatile product that is ideal for making custom-designed manual handling and storage equipment.
Cutting to size
British tubular steel storage and manual handling manufacturers generally do not have long production lines making thousands of items a day. They use skilled metalworkers who weld tubular steel together to create equipment. They have machines to cut and bend the lengths of tubular steel and other equipment that speeds up the fabrication process, but each item of equipment is manufactured individually. This makes it easier to modify designs to the end user’s specifications.
Tables often need to be a custom size to fit a space. A British manufacturer that fabricates its own tables will have standard sizes, but when constructing tables, it takes little extra time to cut the tubular steel to a custom size. Making custom size tables does not add much to the cost.
If a workplace has narrow doorways, a standard size flat trolley may not fit through it. A trolley can easily to made narrower so that it easily fits through narrow openings.
Fast, flexible and reusable
Equipment made from tubular steel is fast to construct and is flexible in that designs can be modified without expensive and time-consuming retooling.
Tubular steel can be used to make pick and pack trolleys, dispatch tables, sack trolleys, warehouse shelving, racks and more. When equipment reaches the end of its useful life, the steel can be recycled and becomes available to be used to make new equipment.
Designing new equipment
British equipment manufacturers employ skilled designers who can create new types of moving and storing equipment using tubular steel. Tables, trolleys, shelving and racks are all based on designs that have a long history. A new design does not have to be fundamentally different.
For example, the basic design of the sack trolley with a small ledge to place sacks on and two wheels was invented in the 18th Century for dockers to move sacks. Later, sack trolleys were designed that modified the design rather than fundamentally replaced the basic concept. Lightweight tubular steel was used to make sack trolleys that were lighter than previous designs, while still being strong.
Sack trolleys were invented to climb stairs. Trolleys with curved backs make it easier to transport barrels.
Not all goods are a uniform shape or packed in rectangular boxes. Items such as sofas and pianos are heavy and have awkward shapes. Some products like windows are fragile. Designers create storage and handling solutions that make it easy and safe to move these awkward or fragile items.
The art of making new equipment is to modify or add features to existing designs, to adapt the equipment to particular needs. The flexibility of tubular steel helps designers create new versions of trolleys and other manual handling equipment.
Future engineers and scientists will no doubt develop the concept further, but the tubular steel we know and use today is ideal for fabrication manual handling and storage equipment.
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