Woodworking Industry Solution
15.04.08
Hull based company Summerbridge Doors have been in business for over 15 years manufacturing MDF interior doors for kitchens, bathroom, bedrooms, caravans and mobile homes.
The loading of large melamine faced MDF panels onto a newly purchased flat-bed CNC machine raised a manual handling problem. Suppliers delivered the board stacks with the melamine face up but the feeding process onto the flat bed required the boards to be melamine face down. Summerbridge had seen lifting equipment at the Woodmex Exhibition at the NEC on Palamatic Handling Systems stand so they called the company in to review the handling problem.
Palamatic, who provide bespoke handling systems to suit customer's specific requirements, arrived at a unique solution to the problem. A vacuum tube lifting system was installed to lift the boards from the stack and to turn them 90 degrees using pneumatic controls, place them into a ‘toast rack' mounted on the floor which held the boards in a vertical position. The operator is then able to release the board, apply the suction feet to the other side, lift and turn it to horizontal with the melamine surface now below and ready to feed into the CNC machine.
The solution was so successful that an identical lifting system was ordered. These are both suspended from H track gantry systems giving the maximum area coverage.
Summerbridge have resolved a difficult manual handling problem with a user friendly system that enables them to position the boards on the flat bed with ease. Kenneth Bean, Managing Director at Summerbridge Doors, commented "The vacuum tube lifter resolved a major production, health and safety problem, so we invested in another one!"
