A Guide to FlexQube’s Towbars

Many of our carts are equipped with tow bars.

These tow bars are most commonly equipped onto our material handling carts to be transported via a tugger/tow truck through facilities. Our tow bars can be easily added to all our material handling carts, and the modular concept allows for flexibility in the types of towbars we can provide. This guide sets out to explain the differences in FlexQube’s tow bars, which one you should select, and outline our most popular versions.

Why use a tow bar?

So, why use a tow bar? Having a towbar attached to your material handling cart allows you to tow the material handling carts through your facility. The benefits of towing or tugging your carts throughout your facility can include:

• Reduced number of forklift accidents
• Improved transportation times
• Greater flexibility
• Ergonomic Benefits
• Improved delivery efficiency
• Consume less energy

While a tow bar isn’t always needed to transport material handling carts in a tugger train system, it is usually the first step and the more budget-friendly option. The FlexQube concept allows you to add or remove a tow bar on your material handling carts whenever you think they are needed.

Our Different types of towbars

Due to the varying needs of our customers and the different requirements for each application, we have a few different types of towbars.

Standard

This type of towbar is the most used towbar on FlexQube material handling carts. Because the FlexQube towbars are not welded together, the tongue of the towbars can be easily exchanged and the length of the VKR. To prevent damage, there is a rubber dampener added to the base of the tow bar.

Foot Release

Our foot release tow bars are our most ergonomic variant. The name is self-explanatory as the operator can release the towbar via their foot. This means that the operator has no bending or flexion to release the material handling cart. If ergonomics is a priority in your facility, this would be the towbar for you.

Light Duty

As the name suggests, this towbar is designed for lighter carts with lighter-weight materials. This towbar comes with the tongue and the VKR as one piece, which differs from our standard towbars.

Heavy Duty

FlexQube doesn’t generally offer an extra heavy-duty tow bar; however, if one is required for the project and we believe it is safe, and reliable a specific heavy-duty tow bar can always be worked on.

Repairing towbars

Occasionally tow bars can become damaged. This can be due to an accident while driving the tow truck/tugger, overloading the carts, and from general use. With welded carts, a broken tow bar either means needing to weld on a totally new tow bar which is quite resource-intensive, or scrapping the cart as a whole which isn’t very sustainable and can be costly.

If your FlexQube tow bar is damaged, we can help in this situation in two ways. The first is that we can replace only the piece within the tow bar which was damaged, for example, the VKR. The second option is to unbolt the damaged tow bar and bolt on a new tow bar.

Tow bars for the FlexQube eQart

Our AGV solution, the eQart, can also have these tow bars attached to its frame. This then turns the eQart into a load-bearing transportation function. Having an automated transportation method for the tasks which are not complex enough for your operators is ideal for giving them more time to complete the tasks that you need them to complete every day. So if you are looking for tow bars that can be used alongside automation, our range of tow bars can meet these requirements.

Choose & Change your Tow bars with FlexQube

Our modular concept lets you create and recreate your material handling carts as you please. This means letting you add, remove or change the type of tow bars added to your carts as you please. We understand that your facility’s environment is dynamic and fluid and therefore means your carts need to be as well.