"We have indeed gotten the Off-Loader up and running and are very pleased with it. It's had a significant impact on the productivity of our CNC router, raising our 'sheets per shift' productivity by 40% (from 50 sheets per shift to 70 sheets per shift). Pretty good improvement from a capital investment focused only on materials handling"

S. Nowick - Austin, TX

Beginning small and working in a small shop area, did not allow us the luxury of material handling equipment. All product movement was done by physical labor.  As our business continued to grow, the need for material handling equipment grew as well.  Several reasons for that were; larger jobs which required more material, a lean staff -- nobody is available to help a person at another machine with moving material, and the sheer physical aspect of moving material around manually when a machine made it so much easier.

To that end, we incorporated several pieces of equipment to make our lives easier.

At our beam saw, we added an overhead the Front Loader with a Gorbel 28’ monorail crane.  This is a life saver, especially when we are cutting laminate sheet goods.  No more sliding of the material onto the saw table and potentially scratching the sheet below.  It can pick up 4’ or 5’ wide material, 8’ or 10’ long, from 1 – 4 boards.

Over at the Edgebander, we have installed a Best Flex electric flexible return conveyor that brings the parts from the end of the machine back to the operator.  This item saves time from walking to catch each part.   Now all items are at the “working end” of the machine.

At our CNC, an absolute must, is the Gorbel 250 lb capacity jib crane with 16’ reach and vacuum hoist.
The CNC is 5’ x 21’ with one operator, as with the Front Loader, this vacuum hoist allows one operator to work both zones of the machine solo, and by lifting instead of sliding the material, we avoid scratches on our sheets.

As we grow older, it becomes more important to work smarter.  By incorporating material handling devices at key areas, the day becomes more productive, more profitable and less tiresome.

N. Maglicco – Lewisville, TX