What is a Mother-Daughter Cart System?

Last Modified: 05.03.2020

Mother-Daughter cart concepts using the FlexQube system (or Routenzug in German) is the most versatile and flexible solution on the market.

The carts and trolleys can be integrated with many of the different mother-daughter systems on the market, including the STILL Liftrunner E-frame, B-frame or C-frame system, and the Linde Tugger Train with e.g., the Bridge Type design.

FlexQube also offers other types of mother-daughter system, including frames for small carts. That can include 1, 2, 3, 4, or 6 daughter carts in the same mother frame. These solutions make it possible to disconnect the daughter cart from the mother cart and place it at work stations or the assembly line quickly and ergonomically. The daughter carts are also easily pushed onto the mother carts and locked into position. Our design approach guarantees ease of use, excellent control, and a safe workspace.

The daughter carts are lighter than welded carts and lock safely and quickly into the mother cart frame. While other companies provide standard-sized mother frames and solutions, FlexQube can offer custom made designs using the LEGO® inspired building block system. Our custom-built mother-daughter cart systems take into consideration your specified requirements and application processes. This means you get precisely what you ask for.

Since FlexQube’s inception, we have spent much time and effort not only into setting up the most versatile cart system but also into designing state of the art and modern material handling solutions including durable, efficient and ergonomically desired mother/daughter cart system. This means every mother-daughter cart system we provide you is built to the highest standards. The carts are also designed to be modular in nature and easily adapted to specific uses.

Our daughter carts and trolleys are either transported on the floor with no need to push them up a ramp, which is heavy and sometimes impossible to do for some operators. The unloading of daughter carts from other mother cart systems on the market where the carts are rolled onto an angled ramp is very dangerous if the operator would trip or fall and get a 2000 lbs. Container cart coming at his legs. This is not the case with the FlexQube mother-daughter cart systems. We also integrate our carts with the STILL Liftrunner system where the carts are raised off the floor using hydraulic or pneumatic. These safety features make this cart configuration safe for use across shop floors.

Is A Tongue or A Hitch Tugger for Your Facilities?

Choosing between a tongue and hitch tugger train system and a mother-daughter type can be tricky. Below we try to bring up some pros and cons with both concepts. FlexQube can supply carts and dollies that would work with both a tongue and hitch setup, as well as with different mother-daughter cart concepts.

Most of the mother-daughter frame systems today only allow release on one side of the frame. One exception to this is the B-frame sold by STILL GmbH that FlexQube has an official partnership with. This means that the routes have to be planned in such a way that the frames are set to open to the side where the material is needed. Since there is a need for a handlebar, most of the time to allow ergonomic handling of the dollies for the operator, the dollies need to be rotated 180 degrees when taken off the train and placed at the work station. That kind of movement is one of the worst from an ergonomic standpoint for the human body and something that HSE officers often complain about.

With the FlexQube concept, the daughter carts can be adapted to new brands of mother frames, new sizes, and so on. The way of moving the carts can also be changed over time, it could just as well start out as carts to be used in a mother-daughter tugger system but later change to an AGV or Robot integration. With the modularity in the FlexQube concept, this is possible to a whole other extent compared to welded solutions.

Therefore, another advantage of using our mother-daughter cart system is the versatility it offers. This makes it possible to be used within most material handling systems in today’s factories.

If you would be more interested in a tongue and hitch based system please click here.