Air Conditioning manufacturer stacker crane

Gorbel Work Station Cranes are helping a manufacturing plant load their finished product to trailers with ease and efficiency.

Application

A plant in the Midwest that makes air conditioning units was looking for a better way to take their packaged air conditioning units off the assembly line and load them onto trailers. They had been using forklifts to transfer the packages to the trailer, but this method was inefficient, and all the fork truck traffic led to congestion on the plant floor. The customer considered an Automated Conveyor System, but determined it would be cost prohibitive.

Gorbel’s Solution

They decided to try a work station crane system instead. They bought a Free Standing Bridge Crane

with Aluminum Bridges. They used it with a custom designed "stacker crane” end effector. This unique

end tooling has 360 degree rotation, can move up and down, and has forks to lift the pallets. This winning combination has been proven to be very successful for the customer. The crane system

allows them to load the trailer more quickly than was possible with the fork trucks - and all the congestion from the back and forth fork truck traffic has been eliminated!

They chose to replace some of their fork lift trucks with Gorbel cranes in order to load packaged units onto trailers. Productivity was increased and fork truck congestion was eliminated.

Ergonomic Partners has extensive experience in handling air conditioning coils, condensers, and bodies. If the relatively new EPA standards have made your parts too hard to handle with manpower we can help.

Contact us at sales@ergonomicpartners.com or visit us at www.ergonomicpartners.com

Gorbel work station crane system help this pet food manufacturer take the load off their workers

Pet Food Company Takes Pain Out Of Processing Operation with work station crane.

"If you get one lost time accident, obviously that’s too many because the first thing you think of is workers being safe. Just one injury can also cost the company an awful lot of money long term."

Problem: Workers were lifting 45 lb. frozen meat slabs manually from a pallet, then had to twist and push the slabs onto a conveyor dozens of times in an 8-hour shift. Injuries and fatigue became a major problem, and the company decided to seek a more ergonomic method of moving the meat.

Solution: A Gorbel ceiling mounted work station crane with a vacuum lifter. The system features 22’ trussed runways and a 19’ bridge with 250 pound capacity, which covers the entire area where meat is dropped off and loaded onto the conveyor. A vacuum lifter with a skirt attachment allows workers to pick each piece and move it to the conveyor. Vacuum lifter can be used in many food applications. Stainless steel vacuum systems attachments are typically used for food applications.

Results: Workers realized quickly that with the help of the Gorbel work station crane, they were able to work quickly without getting tired and slowing down midway through their shift like they would by lifting manually.

CM Cleanroom Hoist

he CM Lodestar Cleanroom Hoist has been designed and built with your complete cleanroom hygiene needs in mind. Specifically designed for most situations where USDA approved or food-grade hoists are required, the CM Lodestar Cleanroom Hoist is also an ideal hoist for use in electronic cleanrooms and in the biotechnology, aerospace and semi-conductor fields. The CM Cleanroom Hoist's sealed weather-proof construction makes it ideal for full washdown and high humidity environments, offering you superior e fficiency and versatility for your cleanroom material handling needs. The CM Cleanroom hoist's ¼, ½, 1 and 2 ton single and two-speed options provide heavy-duty lifting power inapplications needing the sanitary regulations of a food manufacturing hoist, an electronic room hoist or pharmaceutical hoist. he CM Lodestar Cleanroom Hoist can also be valuably employed as a medical hoist and hospital hoist where cleanliness is imperative. Further enhancing the hygienic characteristics of the CM Cleanroom Hoist is its use of non-oxidizing grease for lubrication, FDA-approved white epoxy powder coat paint or nickel-plated housing, and a stainless steel loadchain. A variety of accessories such as stainless steel hooks, links, slings and corrosion resistant trolleys andmotorized trolleys are also available. CM also offers the "Zephyr" cleanroom hand chain hoist for use in similar clean environments where portability is key. T

Clean room mats now available!

Wearwell has a new product which many of you have been looking for. Many customers have asked for a clean room mat. Well, we can help with the Wearwell mats described below. Now we can help!

Pūr-Comfort No. 504 is Wearwell’s new anti-fatigue mat certified for use in ISO class 5 clean rooms. This exceptionally comfortable mat meets requirements of critical environments across a wide variety of industries (including no particulation and very low levels of outgassing). Pūr-Comfort is a mat like none other and one that clean room managers have been clamoring for. I know because I have been fielding those calls for over 15 years!!! http://www.wearwell.com/Critical-Environments/PurComfort.html

PermaTack No. 092 is a unique, re-useable, high performance contamination control mat designed to prevent debris and bacteria from entering critical or sterile areas. Able to trap and hold even the smallest particles or microbes, PermaTack is exceptionally functional inside hospitals, labs, pharmacies and manufacturing or assembly facilities where cross-contamination must be prevented. PermaTack can also be a big aspect of an infection control program. And if your customers are concerned about sustainability, PermaTack is a – “Green” alternative” to multiple layer tacky mats. http://www.wearwell.com/Critical-Environments/PermaTack.html

Both Pūr-Comfort No. 504 and PermaTack No. 092 are in stock and available for immediate shipment. Single page brochures are available for both of these exciting new products. Please contact us at sales@ergonomicpartners.com or call 314-766-4578 for more information

A leading cause of injuries on the job

Fifteen U.S. workers die on the job every day, leaving behind family, friends and co-workers, and an employer who has to explain why. The single most common cause of the problem — complacency.

In the realm of workplace safety, practitioners define complacency as the attitude that “nothing will happen to me.”

And the No. 1 cause of that attitude is managers who are satisfied with mediocre safety performance. They fail to raise safety awareness, which helps to eliminate the potential for injury and improve the overall work environment.

What happens next is inevitable: Employees lose sight of safety’s importance because to them it appears management isn’t terribly concerned, either. They start to think they are not even responsible for their own personal safety at work, which is truly a remarkable transformation.

It happens every day. Overtime, as this situation is allowed to run its course, employees blame management and management blames the employees. In the meantime, people might be getting hurt and the bottom line is taking a beating with higher workers’ comp costs, fines, turnover, morale, etc.

So what can C-level managers do? Double-check that your own team hasn’t fallen into the safety complacency trap.

Managers are susceptible to complacency when other pressing issues such as increased productivity, improved quality and higher profits push safety concerns too far to the rear.

The only remedy that really works is re-commitment to safety that begins at the top.

Leadership must require managers to renew their own commitment to the safety process, while at the same time engage employees to get involved in meaningful safety activities.

Any attempt to reinvigorate a company-wide safety effort should include these 4 “musts for managers:

1. Take time to walk around and talk with employees

2. Make it a point to review all near-miss and injury reports.

3. Integrate safety into all aspects of management planning.

4. Enable employees to get involved in the safety process.

To get employees involved, require or encourage them to:

1. Report all unsafe conditions.

2. Attend safety meetings

3. Serve on safety committees

4. Participate in accident/incident investigations.

5. Share safety improvement ideas with managers.

By Rich Henson http://www.businessbrief.com/a-leading-cause-of-injuries-on-the-job/