The Problem
The customer had a requirement to lift a painted sheet steel fabrication that was above their specified manual handling limit. The component needed to be lifted horizontally from a delivery stillage to the production line using an overhead crane.
The Challenges
The component wasn’t designed with integral lift points that could be used and the painted finish must be protected.
The sheet steel was too thin to be able to safely use a conventional lifting magnet and the component had a narrow profile limiting options for standard vacuum lifting cups.
The Solution
We designed a special lifting bar that was able to achieve the safe working load and packaging requirements by using 2 narrow suction cups attached to a bespoke lifting beam fabrication. This gave a more stable lift than a single vacuum lifting cup and kept the footprint of the beam away from any curved ages that would make it difficult for the cups to seal.
The solution made it easy for the operators to locate the lifting tackle onto the face of the component presented in the delivery stillage with no need to screw in any lifting bolts whilst protecting the paint by ensuring that the only contact with the component was the rubber feet of the suction cups. These suction cups are designed to use a self-sustaining vacuum and indicator. This means that if a suitable vacuum has not be achieved to lift the component the operator can easily tell and the beam will not lift the components.
