Workplace Ergonomics and Caster Technology Blog

Manual Materials Handling Cart Design: How Ergonomics Improves the Bottom Line

In our blog, we’ve talked for awhile now about how ergonomics plays an important role in reducing workplace injuries. But when it comes to transporting heavy loads with material handling carts, having the right cart design and caster selection for the specific application can also […]

ErgoExpo Webinar: Guidelines for the Use and Design of Manually Handled Carts

Join us for the next ErgoExpo Webinar October 9, 2019 | 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT Duration: 60 minutes Produced by: National Ergonomics Conference & ErgoExpo Manual material handling (MMH) tasks are typically complex, and cart handling is no exception. Manual material handling […]

How Darcor’s Casters Transitioned One Company to a Fork Free Facility

Case Study: Increased Efficiency and Workplace Safety Due to Caster and Cart Solution The client: Our client, a heavy stamping plant, located in Ontario, Canada is dedicated to metal stampings to make exterior panels for many automotive OEMs. They currently have several different product lines […]

Caster Problems: 10 Reasons Casters Fail

Although casters are one of the smaller parts that make up a material handling cart, they play an integral role in how that cart will move efficiently and safely. Also, premature caster failure can impact the company’s bottom line. Caster technology has come a long […]

Get Ready for ErgoExpo 2019!

ErgoExpo 2019 is coming up! Get Ready for These Top Three Sessions The 25th National Ergonomics conference & ErgoExpo is only a few weeks away. The ErgoExpo is being held August 20 – 23, 2019 at the Paris hotel in Las Vegas. The National Ergonomics […]

Don’t Put The Cart Before Workplace Ergonomics

By Raymond Erbe Effective Material Movement Needs To Be Safe A serious, and often subtle, workplace safety hazard is lurking in many fabricating operations. It starts with employees hauling equipment, workpieces, and products around the shop, even when they’re already taking precautions and following OSHA’s […]

6 Critical Material Handling Tips to Make Your Workplace Safer

By Kevin Hill Safety is of utmost importance in every industry. If you deal with handling heavy loads on a daily basis, then you must follow safe material handling techniques. It won’t just reduce injuries but also increase productivity and profits. This article focuses on […]

MHI Releases New Video About ICWM

MHI has released a new video titled How Wheels and Casters Move the World. In this video, MHI touches upon the fundamental need for wheels and casters throughout the world, but most importantly, it highlights the Institute of Caster and Wheel Manufacturers (ICWM). Darcor is […]

Risk Mitigation in Manual Materials Handling (MMH) Push-Pull Tasks

Over the past four years, Darcor’s Workplace Ergonomics and Caster Technology Blog has emphasized the utility of good cart design, especially with regard to careful consideration of the required operating forces. Failure to act to control risk or making poor decisions in the design of manual cart handling tasks or in the evaluation of risk during push and pull tasks incurs costs from injuries, productivity losses, and operational inefficiencies. To mitigate MMH risk from the start and ongoing, it is crucial to initially design the cart and task so that all operating forces are within safe limits and perform routine verification and maintenance to ensure that the operating forces remain within those recommended limits throughout the economic life of the cart.

AEC 2019 Highlights

The Darcor team just returned from AEC 2019 and we wanted to share some highlights. The show seems to be getting bigger every year, with a lot of first-time attendees this year. There were over 60 Exhibitor booths and 48 Ergo cup teams. There was a strong focus as always around the ergonomic benefits of carts and casters with 8 presentations focusing on the topics of push/pulls forces, and carts and casters ergonomics. The Ergo Cup once again demonstrated how simple, cost effective, worker driven solutions can have a significant impact on the ergonomics of a work task while also contributing to production efficiencies and other ROIs. Attendees were very interested in Darcor's display on the debris rejecting capabilities of our Neoprene wheels, as well our capability to design ergonomic systems like the central brake and Zephyr. There was a lot of discussion around the new BWC push/pull tool developed from the research done by OSU (SRI), which allows user to easily determine if their push/pull task is in a acceptable force range. The tool only requires a few input parameters and outputs a simple green, yellow or red indicator to let you know the percent of the population at risk for that task. These limits were determined biomechanically using accurate models of the spine to understand how to prevent damage to the spinal disks before exceeding these thresholds. Read on to find out about the highlights from AEC 2019 Applied Ergonomics Conference including highlights from the keynote speaker, sessions, and trends.