You simply cannot put a price on employee health and safety. This is certainly true from an ethical standpoint, and it is accurate from an economic perspective as well. Providing the right tools and equipment for your employees can help prevent devastating company accidents, improve efficiency and cut down on lost time due to injuries.
Open-side self dumping hoppers are a prime example of equipment that protects workers from sudden mishaps as well as chronic physical problems from repetitive movements and heavy lifting. This emphasis on staff safety may even help reduce insurance premiums and cut down on employee turnover.
Open-Side Hoppers Make Great Work Horses
Used in conjunction with a forklift truck, this sturdy piece of equipment provides workers in production, maintenance, waste removal and other areas with a valuable means of handling and transporting unwieldy and dangerous loads.
Workers load large items on the flat surface of open-sided hoppers with room to hang over the open sides. Due to this, large items are less likely to shift during transport. The innovative design answers the problem of safely moving heavy, bulky items from one place to another.
The operator can use the automatic bumper release or manually dump the load by utilizing a cable from the seat of the forklift. Either way, the worker is safely out of the way when dumping the cargo, and this also saves time by eliminating the need to get down from the forklift.
The Hopper With A Difference
Unlike conventional self dumping hoppers, open-side hoppers do not have an enclosed box. While this dictates the type of material the hopper transports, the lack of restricting sides means size and length of the items no longer limit hopper use.
Obviously, small loose items like food ingredients, gravel, and ball bearings would not work in this type of equipment since they would not stay confined. However, longer or taller items can be safely stacked on the flat bed and suspended on each side while the worker repositions them from one area to another.
If the items are loaded manually, open sides allow the employee to place them on the hopper bed without having to lift or throw them over tall sides.
Open-Side Hoppers Can Help Out Anywhere
Since almost every business and institution has bulk trash removal and recycling needs, open-side hoppers provide efficient applications in any maintenance area. Picking up discarded packing materials, pallets and cardboard boxes becomes easier to load and dispose into the dumpster.
Many manufacturing plants of all types will find these hoppers useful for moving bulky raw materials to the assembly line as well as transporting finished products. These versatile hoppers really shine on construction locations as they move building materials around the site. Demolition becomes safer and easier when the recyclables and debris are loaded into a hopper without sides.
Material Mania
It’s hard to come up with all the materials open-side hoppers handle with ease. You can safely transport lumber, large sheet material, steel frames, plastic and metal pipe, tubing, bulk materials, scrap, trash and other debris.
Take the time to walk through your plant or work site and note where your workers might be struggling with large material handling processes. Are they struggling to lift heavy or bulky materials over the sides of conventional hoppers? Do they need to do a lot of bending, hoisting or other repetitive movements? Make sure to solicit input from your employees and ask whether using a hopper with open sides might help.
People comprise the most valuable asset of any business, and outfitting your workers with the best equipment to do their jobs is the smartest thing to do. Emphasizing safety and ergonomic considerations provide big benefits in both the short and the long term.
Investing in open-side hoppers for your workplace may result in safer, happier employees and an improved bottom line.