nyone who’s ever tried to cram an odd-shaped item into a box, or stuff a pile of unfolded clothing into a suitcase, knows that packing is easier when everything is organized and you use the right tools. When packing metal products to ship, there’s the added issue of safety, so not only does a structured operation create ease but it also reduces employees’ risk of injury, particularly when handling heavy materials.
Implementing an automatic coil stacker at the end of a processing line helps eliminate the ergonomic and safety concerns that crop up when handling coils manually, improves operator safety and creates highly organized stacks for packing.
A manual ID grab requires a lot of maneuvering from operators as they work to line up the grab and stack coils manually, Korcusko says. When doing so, operators are “standing right at the coil, holding and guiding it,” exposing themselves to danger if the coil were to fall. The Coil Master Stacker, on the other hand, is “totally hands off. The operator stands at a control station on the other side of the machine.”
“When the desired amount of coils are stacked, the operator can then choose a pallet loading cycle,” Korcusko says. “The stack of coils is moved to the load position over the selected pallet, then lowered onto the pallet. The ID grab collapses, raises and returns back to the home position.”
K&S also has developed a space-saving, three-station in-line sortation table that works in tight quarters.
The company recently installed a Coil Master Stacker and an inline coil sortation table at a customer that was switching over from using a manual ID grab suspended from a crane. Korcusko says the customer is “very happy with the improved safety and productivity the new equipment has provided.”