Alwayse Engineering
Assembly Line
Industry must tackle its first-lift/last-lift manual handling blind spot
For example, an injection mould, press or progression tooling, welding, drilling and boring jigs, heavy batteries and gearboxes or CNC tooling will often be heavier than the recommended maximum manual lifting weight of 25kg or 55lb. Moving this sort of equipment around a facility will typically require lifting, lowering, carrying, pushing and pulling by either an employee or by equipment such as a forklift.
What is required is a low-cost, easily installed solution for this first-lift and last-lift problem. The answer may lie in the use of omnidirectional ball transfer units, expertly designed to facilitate the movement of tools and other equipment around a storage facility and onto a transporter. They can be installed in existing racking and require neither power nor software, making them quick to implement.