Background
An international distributor of sustainable, environmentally friendly office space had recently opened a new facility in the south, and was looking to optimize the safety of its employees in high risk applications. One of the first areas targeted was the receiving area for raw materials, which handles incoming sheets of glass. A typical sheet of the glass is 3 feet by 6 feet, and weight about 115 pounds. The sheets are brought in a large A‐frames, and moved onto carts where they go on to be framed.
The Problem
Shipments are received a few times each week, with as many as 80 lifts required in a single shift and two workers required to do the lifting. It was clear to the management very early that there was too much at risk to leave the application as it was.
“We had a few small injuries,” said the manufacturing manager. “Mostly injuries to hands and fingers. We did not have any back injuries yet, but it was coming. We didn’t want to wait for it.”
The Solution
After seeing a demonstration of the G‐Force® by Gorbel, the company purchased a G‐Force® Q with 330 pound lifting capacity and a remote mounted handle integrated with a Schmalz vacuum lifter. The tooling allows a single user to grip the sheet of glass and tilt it into position. The range of motion of the G‐Force® allows the users to keep a fast working pace and then very gently place the sheets onto the carts.