While it is immediately obvious to the untrained eye that big things are at play in the worksite, this guide undertakes the business of introducing those silent workhorses who populate noisy, dusty, and oh-so-productive workplaces with their presence: air compressors, warehouse racking systems, and road rollers. Picture them as three extremely different yet handy pals one who’s breathless and always keen to provide power to tools you need to work with, one who’s fastidiously tidy and loves to get things set perpendicularly, and one who’s a huge stompy pal who makes things nice and silky smooth. Below each gets its own little spotlight, with lengthy comparisons between different kinds so you can select which pal is optimal for your task at hand.
Air Compressors
Air compressors love to bring life to handheld power tools, inflate tires fast, and power pneumatic networks smoothly. There are some characteristic flavors: piston (reciprocating) compressors, rotary screw compressors, and smaller transportable units. Piston compressors are old-school, sturdy, fair for intermittent work, and great when you need short spikes of high pressure. Rotary screw compressors are workaholics: quieter running, better for steady-industrial usage, and easier on maintenance for all-day activities. Portable compressors are social butterflies, light enough to handle, easy to move from job to job, and perfect for DIY work or small crews.
If you’re doing occasional nailing and inflation work, go with a piston or portable. For a factory application or large workshop, a rotary screw system frequently makes life quieter and less hassle.
Warehouse Racking Systems
Let’s move out to the warehouse, where order and a hint of chaos exist in tandem. A good warehouse racking system can completely change how much you store and how fast you retrieve what you need. It is important to know what types of racking systems are best suited for your premises because once you make the purchase and move towards installation, and it is ill-suited to your worksite, there is no coming back. Another important reason why diligence should be a priority is that sometime the flashy, modern systems aren’t suited to your business needs, and hence this guide as to types:
- Selective racking works best when constant access is needed or for the handling of various types of SKUs.
- Drive-in means that individual pallets cannot be accessed, but it is perfect for procurement of identical items.
- Pushback and pallet flows are middle-grounders- they are tighter than selective storage but kinder to access than drive-in, providing a nice middle position between space maximization and operational velocity.
If, for example, you’re warehousing a bookstore with eclectic titles, selective racking is the better route. If you’re warehousing huge quantities of identical paint cans, drive-in is your go-to!
Road Rollers
Out the back by the road (or at least someday by a road when it is being made), there is the underrated smoother of surfaces called the road roller. There are smooth drum rollers, pad foot (sheepsfoot) rollers, and pneumatic tyre rollers, all with their own unique functions and purposes:
- Smooth drum rollers lay a wide, even coating and are perfect when you require a hard, dense surface for asphalt or compacted aggregate.
- Padfoot rollers appeared to have donned medieval festival dress, with lumps on their drums, and excel at working and compacting cohesive soils like clay.
- Pneumatic tyre rollers are powered by rubber tyres and achieve consistent compaction over a broader distance and excel at achieving a uniform density to an asphalt layer.
On large jobs you will generally find combinations: padfoot to open up heavy soil, with smooth drums and pneumatic tyres to achieve a nice finish. To obtain a runway-smooth finish it is simply a case of choosing and sequencing the right roller type combinations.
Selecting the Correct Prototype
Selecting the correct machine prototype, especially if you are a novice warehouse handler seems like a Herculean task. It is however easily simplified by asking the following questions: How often am I going to use the machine? What is access/finish quality like? And how much space (or sound tolerance) have I got?
For compressors: occasional weekend repairs cry out for transportable or piston units, while a large repair shop is amply rewarded with a rotary screw. For racking: if you have all grab-and-go pallets, selective sets outperform dense sets; if space is at a premium, and you’re working with consistent materials, dense sets pay off early. For a good road roller: select roller type to fit your soil or surface material- pad foot for clay, smooth drums for final asphalt, pneumatic for an even mat.
One final expert tip: don’t be amazed by flashy specs only. Think maintenance friendliness, noise where you work, and how equipment is compatible with the motion of your day. The quiet rotary screw compressor is a bit pricier upfront but will save sleep and earplugs later. Clever racking can save steps and minutes each and every shift. And a respectable roller mix will keep troubles (patch-repair work) off your list for decades.
