Designing Trolleys for the New Millennia

Abstract

Trolley design has been of concern to industry and society for centuries, with trolleys used for ease of transportation of all types of materials. Perhaps one of the most infamous current examples is that of the shopping trolley or cart where multitudes of solutions have been developed. Little effective commercial result has been achieved due to complicated designs being unable to be manufactured in volume and often poor dynamic performance. User concerns relate to a number of Ergonomic factors including the difficulty associated with steering a trolley with all swivel castors or combinations of fixed wheels and swivel castors, resulting in excessive steering and operating forces, the inadequacy of the handles provided to interface with the user population and poor ergonomic design of the load space. Add irregular or carpeted surfaces, cost compromises, designer ignorance and the problems the end user experiences are significant and may result in injury in a high usage workplace application. This paper summarises our extensive research and development that has led to commercial manufacture of a range of ergonomically designed trolley products specifically aimed at eliminating injury and improving productivity in workplaces.