Why Do Factories Prefer Trackless Electric Flat Carts? These 4 Advantages Are Too Practical
For factories, how fast and hassle-free material handling is directly affects their profit margins. Nowadays, whether in automobile factories or steel mills, more and more business owners are replacing forklifts and rail-mounted flat carts with trackless electric flat carts. Ultimately, this isn’t just following a trend—it’s because this equipment perfectly solves the major headaches of workshop material handling: it’s flexible, efficient, safe, and can keep up with the pace of smart factories.
1. No Rails Needed—Adapts to Any Workshop Layout Change
Rail-mounted flat carts used to be a real nuisance: whenever the workshop production line needed adjustments, the old rails had to be removed and new ones laid. This often meant shutting down production for days, and the cost could easily reach tens of thousands, or even over 100,000 yuan. The biggest convenience of trackless electric flat carts is that they “don’t require rails”—they can go anywhere the ground allows.
Equipped with tires, they have extremely flexible steering—easily navigating 1.5-meter narrow corners and tight passages crowded with machinery. When the workshop layout changes, there’s no need to modify the equipment; you just move it and adjust the route. It can adapt to cement floors, wear-resistant floors, and other surfaces when transporting goods between workshops, truly living up to the saying “go wherever material handling is needed.”
An auto parts factory shared their experience: previously, changing a production line required 3 days of shutdown just to modify the rails, costing over 100,000 yuan. After switching to trackless electric flat carts, they adjusted the new route in just 2 hours, saving 90% of the site adaptation costs and avoiding any production delays.
2. Fast and Cost-Saving—Save Hundreds of Thousands a Year
Every factory wants material handling to be “faster and cheaper,” and trackless electric flat carts deliver on both counts.
In terms of speed, it can reach a maximum of 20 meters per minute while maintaining stable operation without jolting. Its platform can also be customized according to the size of the goods—whether it’s large steel coils or a pile of small parts, it can load everything at once and deliver directly to the destination. Unlike forklifts that require intermediate unloading and transferring, this boosts efficiency by more than 50%.
It’s even more cost-effective in terms of expenses: powered by lithium batteries, a single charge enables 8 to 12 hours of continuous operation, and the electricity cost is 90% lower than that of fuel-powered forklifts. With a simple structure, daily maintenance only involves checking tires and batteries, and the annual maintenance cost is 60% lower than that of rail-mounted flat carts. A steel mill reported saving over 800,000 yuan a year just on fuel and maintenance costs after replacing 10 units with trackless electric flat carts.
3. Maximum Safety—Reliable Even for High-Risk Tasks
The biggest fear in heavy material handling is accidents, and trackless electric flat carts are designed with safety in mind—they can even be used in high-temperature, flammable, and explosive hazardous areas.
Operation is extremely safe: it can be controlled remotely from 50 meters away, eliminating the need for operators to ride along and completely avoiding risks such as falling goods and collisions. Higher-end models are also equipped with “obstacle avoidance radar,” which automatically slows down and stops when encountering people or objects, accompanied by an alarm—greatly minimizing accident risks.
It also operates stably: with a chassis only 15 to 20 centimeters above the ground, it remains steady even when carrying over 100 tons of heavy loads, unlike forklifts that tend to tip over under heavy loads. The wheels are made of wear-resistant polyurethane material, which won’t damage the workshop floor and operates quietly, creating a more comfortable working environment for workers.
For special environments like steel mills and chemical plants, customized high-temperature-resistant and explosion-proof versions are available. They can operate safely in 120°C high-temperature workshops or areas with flammable and explosive gases—something ordinary forklifts simply can’t achieve.
4. Integrates with Smart Systems—Keep Up with Factory Upgrades
Nowadays, factories are moving towards automation and intelligence, and material handling equipment must keep up. Trackless electric flat carts can seamlessly integrate into smart production lines and operate without manual intervention.
It can connect to the factory’s smart system, and with a positioning module installed, it can navigate independently and park at workstations with an error of less than 5 millimeters. For example, in an automobile assembly workshop, when the system issues an order to “pick up parts from the warehouse,” it will automatically go to retrieve them, deliver to the designated workstation, and return to the warehouse after unloading—all without manual assistance. Operational status and handling data are visible on the system, making management extremely convenient.
In contrast, traditional rail-mounted flat carts are limited to fixed routes and cannot participate in intelligent scheduling; forklifts rely entirely on manual operation and cannot connect to smart systems—neither can keep up with the upgrade pace of modern factories.
