Custom Material Handling Carts: 3 Real-World Examples

Custom manufacturing allows you to achieve a perfect match between industrial carts and the materials they carry. This perfect match between the carrier and the carried produces a range of benefits.  

Sometimes custom carts simply shave moments off every load you move, adding up to higher throughput over the span of a shift. Other times, custom industrial carts are indispensable, as standard models simply won’t support the materials you need to move.

Of course, some industries depend on custom material handling carts more than others. For example, a pallet in/pallet out (PIPO) warehouse might only need pallet carts, forklifts, and pallet jacks. The standardized unit load works well with standardized equipment. 

An automotive OEM, on the other hand, is likely to need highly specialized material handling carts. These facilities produce high volumes of vehicle components with often-awkward sizes, shapes, and weights. After all, stacking a rear bench seat on a standard cart would be inefficient and unsafe.

Instead, these manufacturers — and others like them — rely on custom material handling carts to improve safety and productivity in their facilities. If off-the-shelf carts aren’t meeting your material handling needs, you can do the same.

But what features can you customize? While the short answer is “All of them,” that probably won’t help you plan the ideal custom industrial cart. To illustrate the possibilities, we’ll introduce three BHS industrial carts that started as custom requests.

Read more: Customize Order Picking Carts for Unique Applications

3 Examples of Custom Material Handling Carts

As a one-stop custom engineering and manufacturing operation, the BHS team often collaborates with dealers and end-users to produce never-before-seen material handling solutions. Sometimes those custom products have widespread applications, so we add them to our official product lines as standard models.

Here are three industrial carts from BHS, Inc., that started as custom material handling carts. Each one was designed for a specific use case, which is why they’re so different — but these differences illustrate the features that a custom manufacturing partner like BHS, Inc. can adjust to meet your unique specifications.

1. Angled Shelf Cart

As you might have guessed, you can customize a cart’s shelf size, height, number, and capacity. But, as the Angled Shelf Cart illustrates, you might also specify a shelf’s pitch, slanting the shelf to secure loads or support flowthrough access.

 

The BHS Angled Shelf Cart (which features a two-degree rearward slant) was designed for bin picking, in which the slanted shelves and expanded metal panels on the sides and back keep contents secure during movement. However, it’s also ideal for books in a library; returns at a retail store; or even tools in your home garage.

Most importantly, however, you can always work with BHS, Inc. to develop an Angled Shelf Cart that meets your specifications. Keep the two-degree pitch and change the sizes, configurations, or capacities of each shelf — and the unit as a whole.

Learn more about Angled Shelf Carts from BHS, Inc.

2. Cantilever Cart  

An indoor agriculture operator came to BHS, Inc. with a unique material handling challenge. The team needed to move fully loaded rectangular planters, ideally several at a time. The BHS engineering team came up with the Cantilever Cart, an adjustable cart designed for oblong objects — and also ideal for pipes, bars, and any other long, narrow material.

The Cantilever Cart supports these loads on four sets of gravity-locking arms, with a 500-pound (227 kilogram) capacity across each pair of arms. Custom versions of the Cantilever Cart may expand that capacity, extend or shorten arm length, or create new configurations for specialty loads.

Explore Cantilever Carts from BHS, Inc.  

3. Custom Order Picking Cart with Folding Shelves

Order Picking Carts (OPCs) are one of BHS’ flagship material handling products. Our standard models include warehouse-friendly features like easy-steer casters, integrated fork pockets, and heavy-duty construction. However, some end-users need adjustments to get the most benefit from their Order Picking Carts, and the Custom OPC with Folding Shelves is a striking example.

An order-picking operation needed adjustable or removable shelves on their industrial carts, but wished to get the benefits of adjustability without the time or risk of handling heavy shelves. The solution was an Order Picking Cart with two sets of folding shelves, each of which folds with the assistance of gas shocks.

With these folding additions on each shelf, this cart allows users to access additional shelf capacity as needed. Users can pick larger or smaller orders, quickly adjusting the cart for every job.

Read about the Custom Order Picking Cart with Folding Shelves from BHS, Inc.  

Custom Material Handling Equipment from BHS, Inc.

The three industrial carts listed above demonstrate some of the variety available in a custom material handling solution. Of course, the value of custom design is that the options are limitless. In addition to designs like the ones we have just listed, any industrial cart could include a laser-cut logo, your brand colors, alternate construction materials, different sizes, higher carrying capacities, and more.

The best way to start designing the ideal custom material handling cart is to explain your use case to our engineering team. (Request a quote to start the conversation.) From there, we’ll propose a design, and iterate on it until you’re perfectly happy. Then we’ll build your custom cart at our cutting-edge facility in St. Louis, Missouri.

If you’re looking for custom material handling equipment from the experts, contact BHS, Inc. at 1.800.247.9500 today.