A southern Atlantic area vocational center provides job training and working opportunities to the disabled. More than that, the center is a highly efficient supplier of batteries to the federal government, serving as the largest single supplier of batteries to the Dept. of Defense.
The packing area of the plant is a 10 x 10 ft work cell where employees put small boxes of batteries into larger, densely packed boxes, which are then lifted manually and placed onto a pallet.
The process presented several problems, including:
Manual lifting of boxes of batteries Process needed to be easy Company wanted to be proactive in preventing injuries from repetitive lifting.
Lifting Solution Works for Everyone
The final solution was a Gorbel TSJ-100A, a freestanding, lightweight aluminum jib crane with a 100 lb capacity and 10 ft span. Attached to the jib was a Schmalz JumboFlex 35 vacuum lifter with adjustable suction pads to handle any size battery box that the company had. The combination of the vacuum lifter and the lightweight aluminum jib created a lightweight lifting and position solution that made the employees very happy.
"We had purchased a Gorbel workstation crane for the U-line Conveyor the previous year," said the engineering manager, "and it paid for itself in productivity within a short period of time while packing and labeling Caterpillar batteries for defense contracts that reached a weight up to 119lb each. With the jib crane application, we wanted something more ergonomic to take the weight of the load off of the worker in this single station, and we knew the Gorbel products had worked for us before, and taught us the best solutions for material handling on the production floor.
"The jib crane has not been there very long, but already we can tell that the worker using it is fresher throughout his shift, he's happier, and he's more productive -- and this is what really matters to all of us."
