Handling technology

Handling means bringing an object into a particular spatial arrangement, changing that arrangement or maintaining it for a time. This is how the German guideline VDI 2860, widely used in the technical literature, puts it. The decisive point is the arrangement: what matters is not only where a part is but also how it lies – position and orientation.

Handling technology is the engineering that achieves this. It begins with gripping a component and ends when it sits correctly oriented in the fixture, in the machine or on the pallet.

VDI 2860 divides handling into five sub-functions. Every handling task can be composed from them.

In a plant’s material flow, handling stands beside conveying and storage. Conveying overcomes distance, storage bridges time, handling establishes the orientation in which the part is needed. A conveyor brings the crate to the workstation; handling technology begins where the part is taken from the crate and installed.

What separates it from lifting technology is the aim: there the weight is the task, here the position.

Handling takes place on three levels. On the first the person carries and guides the part. On the second a device carries the weight and the person guides – the field of balancers, manipulators and lifting axes. On the third a machine does both: feeding equipment, pick-and-place units and industrial robots.

Which level fits is decided by volume and variety. The more uniform the task and the higher the volume, the sooner automation pays. The more variants, the smaller the batches and the more judgement joining requires, the better the hand-guided device: it takes the weight and leaves the decision with the person.