There are of course many businesses across the country that produce chemicals or solid or liquid food products and store and ship these products in large quantities. The container of choice for these large quantities of goods frequently is the industrial-use drum, either the 30-gallon or, more often, the 55-gallon size. These large drums, which typically are constructed of steel, plastic, or fiber, perform excellently for their designated use. They also, chiefly because of their weight when full, require specialized equipment to be raised or lowered, tilted, or transported. The most often utilized equipment for maneuvering and emptying these containers are drum movers, drum tilters, and drum dumpers. There are two basic types of drum dumpers: portable and stationary. Top models of both types perform excellently, with the portable models having the added feature of being able to be transported across a facility when necessary. Please take a moment to read the following brief article concerning a portable drum dumper’s key attributes.

Portable drum dumpers are vital equipment for industrial companies that operate with many 55- or 30-gallon drums. When filled with either chemicals or liquid or solid food products, these drums are extremely heavy, necessitating the use of heavy-duty, specialized material handling drum equipment to maneuver and empty them. One important function of portable drum dumpers is its speed and efficiency in emptying these drums, often one after another. Another vital reason for utilizing this material handling equipment is employee safety. An attempt to manually empty a full 55-gallon drum would place significant stress on a worker’s body. This strain could cause a sudden injury or, if incurred over time, what is frequently termed a cumulative trauma disorder. By working to prevent either type of injury, the portable drum transporter can save companies from incurring added health care costs, worker’s compensation claims, and injury-related absenteeism.

In addition to their injury-prevention aspects, another strong attribute of portable drum dumpers is that they work to significantly reduce occurrences of drum spillage. Due to the many gallons of product that these drums contain, spills often can prove costly because of ruined contents. Also, because drums sometimes contain corrosive chemicals, spills involving such contents can cause costly damage to the area where the mishap occurred, and, in addition, to nearby machinery and other equipment. An important, linked portable drum dumper feature is its ability to dispense at various heights, ensuring that drums will be emptied at the optimum height for what they’re being dispensed into, thus reducing the chance of spillage.

Very importantly, portable drum dumpers also increase the productivity levels of the facilities that use them. These drum dumpers accomplish this by significantly increasing and speed and efficiency with which a facility’s drum dispensing is handled. Via its push-button operation, this equipment enables a single employee to quickly and efficiently dispense the contents of many drums over a short period of time. The ability to accomplish this can be especially vital to very busy industrial facilities that maneuver and dispense significant quantities of drums on according to regular schedules. It is the customer’s responsibility to verify correctness of fit for applications.


Beacon Technology is a world-class provider of Drum Dumpers. Since 1949, the Beacon Brand has been serving dealers, architects, specifiers, designers, builders and buyers for commercial, industrial and government material handling equipment projects.Beacon has Portable Drum Dumpers that come in a wide