Need
Stefal is a company that has been engaged in the production of electrical wiring harnesses and electromechanical assembly for various market sectors since 1978.
At the heart of production, in the cutting area, a tool needed to be found that would allow employees to pick up and put cable drums into the machine independently.
The challenge
The drums are very heavy therefore, in order to move them, it was always necessary to wait for the forklift driver to arrive or to resort to team lift.
This led to considerable inefficiencies as there could often be downtime while waiting for the forklift driver, but especially in the case of team work, in addition to the downtime, the work was not done ergonomically and there was a risk that the lifting was not done correctly by the operators, causing excessive back strain.
After the inspection at the company, we found a second challenging aspect: the drums to be handled are of different sizes and materials, resulting in different strength and gripping modes.
Some cylindrical in rigid cardboard, with galvanized sheet metal edging, and a wooden bottom and lid; others in lighter, hexagonal cardboard with slots as handles.
Another aspect that could not be overlooked was the place where the drum was picked up/released.
The material was to be picked up on pallets, also distributed in the center, not only on the edges, so it was necessary to find a way to squeeze in with the lifter under the pallets and at the same time reach the center, keeping the center of gravity safe while lifting the drums.
In addition, the drums were often stacked together, so the maximum heights to be reached had to be well judged, while still maintaining maximum travel.
How to
The engineering department made a trellis lift, equipped with two options:
- Ropes that allow picking up hexagonal and non-hexagonal light cardboard drums. The double hook allows the drums to be picked up in two places, properly distributing the weight so as not to damage the drum and, at the same time, minimizing sway, which is known to be very dangerous during movement, so as to increase accuracy when unloading/machining.
- Suction cups to pick up cylindrical drums with wooden lids.
