Author: christopher Harper

DJ Products Offers Versatile Material Handling Solutions

When we say that we make material handling solutions, we mean that we make products that can be used for more than one application. With some minor configurations, our products can be adapted for almost every heavy cart pushing or pulling application. And you don’t have to figure out these adaptations on your own: If you check out a product on our website and wonder if it can be used in a fashion other than the one mentioned, call us at 800-686-2651 and speak with a Sales Engineer who can help.

Many of our products are walk-behind units that eliminate the pain and strain of manually pulling and pushing a heavy cart and wheeled equipment. Also, our material handling solutions are less costly, smaller, and more maneuverable than traditional powered equipment.

Here are some of the ways our products have been used for various applications:

• A motorized cart pusher can be loaded up with linen just as easily as it can be loaded up with food.

• A powered trailer mover can of course move trailers, but it can also pull cannons.

• A battery powered car pusher will help you push cars, campers, trucks and buses, and it can also assist you as you push anything on wheels.

• A motorized carpet mover will get your carpet where it needs to be, but it can also push other cylinder-shaped items.

• A trailer pusher not only moves standard ball coupler, gooseneck, and kingpin trailers, you can also use it to move your trailer equipment too.

• A powered hand truck and help you transport heavy test weights, dies, carts and other equipment.

Cut Down on Squeaky Wheels with an Electric Cart Pusher

DJ Products offers material handling solutions that allow employers to help their employees complete work tasks safely and with fewer sprains, strains and other injuries. For employers these products present an economic advantage since employees can be more efficient and are less likely to become injured at work. However, our products have other advantages that may not be immediately obvious.

In an article about how the abundance of noise in hospitals makes it difficult for patients who need to heal to get the rest they need, an Associated Press reporter commented:

“…the pagers and phones, the hallway chatter, the roommate, even the squeaky laundry carts all make for a not-so-restful place to heal.”

While we cannot guarantee that our products will make absolutely no noise, we can tell you that they are well made, efficient and could cut down on the squeaky wheels that patients may hear as they convalesce. Our cart pushers are small, maneuverable and come with plenty of power to handle nearly all push or pull applications within a hospital.
A motorized cart mover like the electric CartCaddyShorty cart pusher can play an important role in your hospital—aiding workers as they transport equipment, move food carts, maneuver laundry bins, and complete other daily tasks.

Your business, your employees and your customers can all benefit from your decision to use our battery powered “walk-behind” units because they are ergonomically correct, safe and cost effective. Please take the time to find a specific electric cart pusher on our website, or call our Sales Engineers at 800-686-2651 for a recommendation on your proper solution.

Cart Pullers and Cart Pushers Lessen Chances of Hospital Drama

Are you a fan of ER or Grey’s Anatomy or other dramas set in hospitals? Well, the drama in real hospitals would reach new levels if a hospital found that a number of staff members were indisposed because of the kinds of strains and injuries workers get when they use material handling solutions that are not designed with ergonomics in mind.

Weighty Matters
An Electric Tugger cuts down on the chance of overexertion and will allow your employees to move fully loaded carts quickly and easily. Electric Tuggers also help to keep residents safe by allowing the staff to keep rooms and hallways clear. The Cart Puller from DJ Products is powerful enough to easily haul carts weighing up to fifteen hundred pounds without putting any undue stress on employees.

Better Handling
No matter how heavy or how light the loads your employees are transporting, it is crucial that they be able to move with ease. The term hospital corners normally refers to a method of making beds but when you are transporting a load of linens or medical supplies, tight hospital corners are the ones that you must travel through without running into anyone or losing what is being carried. A cart pusher like the CartCaddyShorty attaches to the swivel-castered end of the cart and provides the pushing and pulling power necessary for easy turning and intricate maneuvering.

With Hospital Carts from DJ Products you can leave the hospital drama to the people on TV. Call us at 800-686-2651 to speak to a Sales Engineer and learn more about our material handling solutions for hospitals.

Transport Spring Cleaning Safely with a Motorized Linen Cart

In most of the United States we have just pushed our clocks ahead one hour. This means that we also get less sleep, although the effects of losing that hour normally wear off after the first week of Daylight Saving Time.

So now that we have sprung ahead and your employees will be up an hour earlier getting their work done, why not examine the equipment they use to make certain that it is up to the task? It is okay for us to spring forward in hours but it is not okay for your employees to use clean linen carts that lurch forward at odd times, sending clean laundry to the floor. And laundry is not the only thing that may be damaged if your allow your employees to use rickety laundry carts to transport clean laundry: there is the possibility that your employees themselves may get hurt if an unstable laundry cart is overturned.

The Motorized Linen Cart eliminates the manual pushing of heavy clean linen carts, especially where carpeting makes them difficult to push. The powered cart is motorized for moving clean linens used for daily duties in hospitality and hospital environments. It can haul loads of up to 700 lbs. It’s variable speed twist grip allows the operator to travel forwards or backwards at speeds between 0 and 3 miles per hour, all while maintaining control.

Watch this video to see our motorized clean linen wire cart in action. And if you have further questions about this or any of our other material handling solutions, feel free to call us at 800-686-2651.

Hospitality: Powered Carts Can Help Prevent Accidents

If you are in the hospitality business, you likely have boom seasons and seasons where things are a little slow. Depending on where you are, your business could be booming in the winter as people flock to your area to escape the cold. Or you might find your hotel or casino start to fill up as spring turns to summer. Either way, you will want to make sure you are doing all you can to protect your most valuable asset: your workers.

In their quest to get the job done, your employees may not always consider what is the best way to transport heavy loads around your facility. However, if you give them the right equipment, you can help them avoid the kinds of accidents that happen when a cart is overloaded.

DJ Products makes Powered Housekeeping Carts, Powered Dirty Linen Carts and Motorized Clean Linen Wire Carts to keep business and your workers moving. You guests expect the best service and in order to provide that you need to give your employees the tools they need to work and move efficiently. You cannot afford to have an employee wrench his or her back or suffer a foot injury because of a malfunctioning cart. Our products eliminate the need for someone of push or pull heave carts while straining muscles. We design ergonomic products that work in concert with the human form to reduce the strain of heavy loads. Our powered carts are also designed so that they can be easily maneuvered in tight corners to minimize potential spills, falls, and accidents.

Electric Carts Ease Strain of Push-Pull Tasks

Pushing and pulling are the two most required actions in industrial and business settings. Unfortunately, pushing and pulling can place extreme stress on a worker’s body, often resulting in back, groin and other musculoskeletal injuries. Injuries can cost an individual business thousands of dollars each year in medical, insurance, disability and lost man-hour costs. An ergonomically designed electric cart pusher and motorized cart puller eliminates the physical strain of manually pushing and pulling heavy carts and wheeled equipment. An investment in ergonomic equipment is a sound investment in the health and safety of your workforce that can save your business thousands of dollars in unnecessary medical and insurance costs.

In manufacturing and distribution settings, the most common solutions to material handling tasks are:

  • to place products, parts and equipment on pallets for handling or
  • to utilize racks, carts and casters to move materials.

Electric carts come in a variety of shapes, sizes and configurations to fit the demands of the task and the capabilities of your workforce. An ergonomically-designed cart mover reduces the amount of force that must be exerted by the operator to maneuver a load. Various cart and wheel configurations are available to meet the needs of any task.

  • Carts, racks or equipment with casters can be easily turned and maneuvered with a CartCaddy power tug that feature a 5th wheel turning method.
  • Carts, racks or equipment with 4 swiveling casters require a cart with back end control.
  • Specialized CartCaddies and an electric tug have been designed to handle carts or equipment that have straight wheels or are on a rail.

Visit the DJ Products website to view our complete line of ergonomic electric carts, trucks and lifts. We offer ergonomic solutions for material handling applications.

Got Power Movers for Industrial Uses? Get Electric Carts for Your Office, Too

At DJ Products, we make a number of material handling solutions that are used in warehouses, hospitals, hotels and a number of other workplaces where workers need to transport heavy loads. And if you are already using our products in these areas, then you know that our power movers and trailer movers eliminate the pain and strain of manually pulling and pushing a heavy cart and wheeled equipment and are also less costly, smaller, and more maneuverable than traditional powered equipment.

But have you also considered using a simple electric cart for other areas of your enterprise? People in your offices may have need of an electric cart for transporting office supplies—boxes of paper, printer cartridges, samples for demonstrations, food orders for group meetings, and presentation materials such as projectors.

Just as you do not want the staff on the industrial side of things becoming strained, you also do not want your office staff hurting themselves either. There is a temptation for people in offices to think that they can just carry heavy loads on their own since they are not doing the kind of heavy lifting that warehouse workers do on a regular basis. They may not have an appreciation for the kind of musculoskeletal strain that carrying a cumbersome load ‘just this once’ can produce.

You and your busy staff will appreciate how our electric cart arrives charged and requires no assembly, so you can put it to use right away. In fact once you have an electric cart for use in the office, you will wonder how you managed without it.

Transport Trailers and Boats with the Trailer Caddy HD

Although tractor trailers have wheels they cannot be driven everywhere. There are times when instead of doing the hauling, a tractor trailer itself needs to be hauled.

The Trailer Caddy HD Chain Drive tractor trailer pusher is a powered pusher designed for pushing or pulling trailers that require lifting on one end before maneuvering.

Most often used with RVs, campers, equipment trailer, and boats, a Trailer Caddy can be used to transport these items across show rooms or down assembly lines, as well as in or out of storage. A Trailer Caddy can be of great use to individual owners or campers and trailers as well as to those who own and rent out this equipment.

Other equipment you may have used in the past probably allowed you to push an RV or a boat, but how did you feel afterwards? If you felt any strain or pain and it wasn’t too serious, chances are you forgot about it but you never know when this kind of strain will lead to a more challenging injury.

You really don’t want to take any chances with your health when transporting this kind or equipment. The powered Trailer Caddy HD Chain Drive tractor trailer pusher is less bulky than the traditional electric puller product, and that is useful because if you think about it, the trailer or boat itself is already bulky. The relative compactness of the Trailer Caddy HD does not mean that it is ineffective; instead it results in fewer accidents, lower maintenance costs, and minimal damage to surrounding parts and equipment due to the maneuverability and control the operator has using the Trailer Caddy tractor trailer pusher in tightly confined areas.

Motorized Cart eliminates strains and pains from pushing heavy materials, food and linen supplies.

DJ Products of Minneapolis has introduced a walk behind self-propelled motorized cart that carries large amounts of food, materials, and linens. Called the PartsCaddy®, the unit is design for moving heavy loads from one point to another in hospital environments, eliminating the manual pushing of heavy carts food, materials, and linens. Motorized Cart

Continue reading “Motorized Cart eliminates strains and pains from pushing heavy materials, food and linen supplies.”

Mark Your Calendar: Upcoming Material Handling Shows

It’s spring and time for our industry’s annual material handling shows. Circle the date on your calendar and start making travel plans. Here’s the low-down on what’s planned:

MHIA  —  April 21-24  —  Cleveland, OH

The  Material Handling Industry of America will host its North American exposition, NA 08: Solutions that Make the Supply Chain Work, at the I-X Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Participants will have the opportunity to inspect and operate the latest manufacturing, distribution, material handling and IT solutions designed to increase supply chain productivity and profitability. Exhibits of products and services will be organized into four Solution Centers: manufacturing and assembly, fulfillment and delivery, information technology and knowledge which will showcase educational, benchmarking and research resources.

  • Sustainable, green solutions will receive special emphasis at the show. Andrew Winston, a nationally recognized expert on green business, will present the keynote address on Tuesday morning, April 22. The corporate environmental strategist will speak on Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value and Build High Performance Supply Chains.
  • More than 70 education sessions will be offered addressing best practices, new equipment developments and leading trends.

MHEDA  —  May 3-7  —  Orlando, Florida

Accelerate in ’08 is the theme of the Material Handling Equipment Distributors Association 53rd annual convention and exhibitors’ showcase. The convention will be held at Loews Portofino Bay Hotel at Universal Orlando in the theme park capital of the world, Orlando, Florida. At the show the emphasis is on education and networking, with ample opportunities to explore new technology and trends, improve business knowledge and skills and network and socialize with material handling peers. Fun activities for spouses and kids are planned for those who want to make this a family affair.

  • An exciting variety of educational presentations, round tables and workshops are planned on innovation, business growth, leadership, sales, marketing, customer service, financial and people management. Among several dynamic speakers will be Brian Beaulieu, an economist with the Institute for Trend Research, speaking on Planning for Change and Steven Little, Senior Consultant with Inc. Magazine, who will speak on Growing Your Business in the 21st Century.
  • At the May 5 Exhibitors Showcase you can check out the latest trends and developments in material handling. Hundreds of manufacturers and consultants from around the world will be on hand to showcase and demonstrate their products and services.
  • A golf tournament and biking tour are among numerous optional tours available for the fun-seeking. Ticket discounts to area theme parks are also available.