| Resolution Vacuum or
magnetic lifters (steel only) required jib or overhead crane that
needs to be integrated. Congestion at the laser, a sheet swinging on
a cable is still a safety issue for the staff and equipment. The
Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) required considerable space,
expensive, limited flexibility for a job shop and required a higher
level of skilled personnel.
Windsor Industrial Services a local material handling fabricator
designed and built a system that is now marketed as LaserMate
that provides us with a cost effective, safe and user-friendly
method of loading our sheet. LaserMate is a floor
supported overhead bridge that straddles the two lasers with a
four-shelf tower away from the laser bed. The bridge supports a
carriage with four forks (similar to the mast of a lift truck). The
carriage has vertical and side-to-side motions to assist in locating
the sheet to the laser table and picking the sheet from the floor or
from the tower. Eight individually controlled vacuum cups are
attached below the forks. Eight retractable hooks for skeleton
removal are also attached to the carriage. The controls are a
Windows based PC with a touch screen on a pendant, outside of the
bridge envelope, with simple functions, to move the carriage, vacuum
and emergency stop with limits to prevent the carriage from crashing
the laser table and tower. Variable speed AC motors provides smooth
motion of the bridge and carriage.
The LaserMate now allows the lift truck to load the
tower with enough material for the shift, load the laser bed under
two minutes, remove skeletons and maximize floor space around the
laser table to process the finished parts |
