Manual, repetitive pick-and-place responsibilities present challenges when it comes to finding solutions that work for all shapes and sizes, weights and dimensions—both for workers and the products. Solutions do exist, however—ones that have been researched and tested by the members of MHI’s Ergonomic Assist Systems and Equipment (EASE).

EASE members provide equipment that tilts, hoists and lifts materials out of containers, either by raising the underside with a tilt table or from overhead, said Jim Galante, EASE chairman and director, business development at MHI member Southworth Products Corp.

'For example, if the materials are parts or components weighing 15 pounds or more, customers may want to use a balancer, hoist or vacuum lifter to lift and not change the attitude of the container at all—just let it sit on the floor,' Galante said. 'However, most things in containers tend to be small things, like tennis balls or ears of corn in a food processing plant. In those cases, the hoist may not be a good solution.'

Wire baskets or containers with lightweight materials also represent an ergonomic issue—repetition. Workers might have to pick thousands of pieces during an eight-hour shift, so tilting the containers would put them at the most advantage to do the work.

'Different tilter hinge heights affect the attitude of the container to the worker, so the equipment has to be controlled by the worker,' Galante said. 'When the container is full, the worker starts taking layers off the top. As they work their way through the material in the container, the equipment jogs it up until the worker gets to the very bottom.'

Portable tilters with wheels are particularly beneficial for food processing plants or pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, so they can be moved when floors are washed down.

'Portable tilters also allow workers to position the equipment to their advantage,' he said. 'For example, they can turn just 90 degrees and not 180 degrees to reach into the container. The container is tilted up so the worker does a little less bending or reaching.'

In some instances, workers need to lower totes that have heavy materials. In other instances, workers need to tilt an entire stack of containers. The tilter may have a lift built in to move the stack up to the proper position.

'There are many variations—it’s most important to understand that one size doesn’t fit all,' Galante said.

Tilters also support lean practices. For example, when picking or placing thousands of small parts a day, while tilters may only save one second for each part—when multiplied out, it can make 'a huge difference.'

'Some customers may feel that they don’t have the time to solve the whole problem, so if they solve 60% of the problem, they think that they are better off than if they hadn’t done anything,' he said. 'But we have equipment that can often solve 100% of the problem, andjust giving thought to getting the right equipment will realize good ergonomic value and good lean value by eliminating waste.'

Dr. Volker Schmitz, EASE member and president and CEO of MHI member Schmalz Inc., said that Schmalz equipment works in concert with Southworth equipment: the equipment from Southworth enables the worker to bring product up to a neutral ergonomic height. Then, the overhead lifting equipment from Schmalz can pick the product up and move it to where it needs to go in zero gravity at the right ergonomic height for the worker.

'A lot of times the worker has to move products at different heights with a lot of repetitive motion all day long, adding up to tens of thousands of pounds per shift for a single worker,' Schmitz said. 'For example, they have boxes stacked on a pallet, and the first couple of boxes are above their head and so they have to reach up above their shoulders repeatedly. Then as they work their way down, they are lifting boxes towards the very bottom of the pallet at ground level, which places a lot of torque on the worker’s lower back.'

(From MHI, to be continued)

Southworth (Shanghai) Lift Table Co., Ltd.

Address: #802, Tower A, Noble International Plaza 

Lane 908,Xiuwen Road, Minhang District, Shanghai,China.

PRC: 201199

E-mail: sales@southworth.com.cn

FAX:+86 021-57494281

TEL:+86 021-33361299

Contact: Mr. Tang