Metal carts have a surprising number of uses. While most of these carts are designed for the express purpose of holding a large number of baskets or trays, there are other, more creative uses for metal carts beyond this.
Here are a few of the industrial uses that metal carts can be put to:
Washing Especially Large Parts Assemblies
Sometimes, manufacturers make parts that are simply too large to be carried by hand—it happens all the time in the automobile and aerospace industries. However, there still needs to be a way to manually move the part and make it easy to handle in between cleaning cycles.
A few of these custom metal carts are even designed to carry loaded parts through the wash process rather than using a separate removable basket.
Facilitating Rapid Drying of Parts
Many metal carts have exceptionally large amounts of open space. By maximizing air flow through the cart during movement, the cart can help facilitate faster drying of parts after an aqueous or chemical-based wash cycle.
More air flow allows parts to dry faster so time between processes is minimized. This increases throughput for some production lines.
Storing Otherwise Non-Stackable Baskets
Factory floor space is a precious resource. When space is tight, there’s less room to maneuver, which can create not only delays, but impact safety of operations.
Parts washing baskets can take up a significant amount of floor space, which is why stacking is often a major design concern for Marlin’s wire basket designs. However, there are many cases where a client is using an existing basket design that doesn’t allow the baskets to stack when they’re fully or even partially loaded.
Using heavy-duty metal carts that are designed to hold these old baskets allows manufacturers to save floor space by putting multiple baskets in a single cart. Of course, not all baskets are compatible with the typical cart design, so it’s important to check the design of the baskets against the design of the cart.
Efficiently Moving Large Numbers of Parts at Once
The primary purpose of a metal cart is to carry numerous baskets or trays at once. The caster wheels that are typically on the bottom of these carts allow them to be easily moved by hand from one place to the next.
This allows workers to move much larger parts loads than would typically be practical. Being able to move more parts at once means fewer round trips, increasing efficiency and throughput by saving time on moving parts from one process to the next.
Do you have a favorite alternative use for metal carts on your factory floor? Please share some of the uses you’ve seen metal carts put to in the comments section.
For more information about metal carts, steel wire baskets, and other metal forming products, check out some of our other resources.
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