Vacuum Handling Streamlines Furniture Construction

23.03.2010

Vacuum lifting devices allow operators to turn wooden boards by 180°, allowing companies to save on the personnel costs and increase efficiency in the production of high quality furniture.

As a manufacturer of elegantly designed custom furniture, Möbelbau Lober GmbH from Honhardt, Germany shows that its is possible both to have a wide variety of designs and to produce products at a high level of handcrafted industrial quality. The 40-person operation is able to achieve this though the end-to-end use of cutting-edge CNC machining centers. However, Lober Möbelbau continues to leave many of the details up to the diligent craftsmanship of its expert staff. One excellent example is in the production of table tops for office furniture. These are cut to size using a CNC cutting machine. During the preproduction process, one side of the table top was already finished with a rounded protective edge. The production process requires that this protective edge face down, meaning that these raw table tops, which were fed into the sawing machine as stacked goods, must be turned by 180° before being placed onto the machine table. Depending on the length and weight of the table top, it may not be possible for a single employee to complete this task alone. When it comes to transporting heavy, large-format workpieces manually, even material damage and health risks to employees are always topics to consider.

Lighten the load on employees while saving on costs?

For the reasons mentioned above, managers at Lober Möbelbau decided to invest in a VacuMaster Comfort 125-180-2 vacuum lifting device from J. Schmalz GmbH. Lober Möbelbau has been working with the vacuum and handling technology specialist for years. They have already had great experiences with Schmalz handling solutions during this time. After completing an extensive analysis of their needs, the company came to the conclusion that they should purchase a VacuMaster Comfort vacuum lifting device to turn the table tops by 180°. This unit was to be designed to handle loads weighing up to 125 kg. The Schmalz modular system allowed them to precisely adjust the lifting device to suit the handling task using two SPU suction plates attached to an aluminum beam. A standard table top is 3,600 mm long, 1,000 mm wide, 30 mm thick and can weigh up to 110 kg. In order to allow the machinery to remove these table tops from the stack, turn them and place them onto the machine table, the vacuum lifting device was combined with a single-beam overhead crane system with a working area of 7 x 5 m. When used together, the easy-to-move aluminum overhead crane system and the lifting device enable a single employee to load the machine safely, easily and precisely.

Another formula for productivity: Make 1 from 2...

The VacuMaster Comfort 125-180-2 vacuum lifting device is operated using an ergonomic operator handle with a built-in controller. At the push of a button, the chain hoist can be raised or lowered, the vacuum can be switched on and off and the table top can be turned by 180°. The large-area suction pads are flexibly mounted to a load beam, which simultaneously serves as the vacuum reservoir. The vacuum is generated by a built-in vacuum pump with automatic energy conservation. Once an object has been picked up, the pump is only reactivated if the vacuum switch indicates that this is required due to a drop in pressure. The two suction plates mentioned above ensure a safe and reliable grip. These plates, both 360 mm in diameter, are manufactured using the robust material NBR-55 and equipped with a special sealing edge. According to Rainer Baudermann, Director of Manufacturing at Lober Möbelbau GmbH, the use of the vacuum lifting device has fulfilled two important requirements: It has allowed the company to save on personnel costs while lightening the work load for employees. Since the company switched from manual handling to mechanical handling, this production step no longer requires two employees; the work can now be completed by one. Employees are very pleased with the new unit and complain of less back pain. This has increased productivity, not just with respect to plate handling, but also by reducing the amount of machine downtime.

Clever Solutions for Material Flow Problems

Rainer Baudermann was not only impressed with the way the project had progressed and the competent consultation they had received, he was also very pleased with all the services that Schmalz had provided in conjunction with the unit, such as certification in accordance with accident prevention guidelines. So it is no surprise that the company has since purchased an additional Schmalz unit. Located right next to the vacuum lifting device used to load the sawing machine, the JumboSprint 85 vacuum tube reduces the work involved in removing the cut parts. The vacuum tube lifter is equipped with a double gripper and suspended using a ceiling-mounted slewing crane with an extra flat design. Thanks to the special telescope function of the jib, the vacuum tube lifter can handle and stack these cut pieces, even within confined spaces. The use of two separate units made sense. Because both the vacuum lifting device and the vacuum tube lifter keep to their separate tasks, the operator is not required to cover any unnecessary distance. This is just another example of the increase in productivity that can be achieved by using vacuum technology.

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