Julian Champkin found that vacuum promotion is very useful in addressing social distancing needs in the online retail industry and other areas.

Covid-19 has affected almost all industries and almost destroyed some of them. The retail industry has been affected because fewer and fewer people enter the stores. There is a negative side. Covid has played an important role in greatly accelerating the already fast-growing online shopping. If you want to prove, in terms of stock market value, online grocer Ocado has just surpassed the supermarket chain Tesco to become the most valuable retailer in the UK. Its current (September 30) value is 2.17 billion pounds, while Tesco's value is 2.11 billion pounds.

Online shopping requires a warehouse and delivery system. Logistics systems can be large and very complex; in warehouses, thousands of different products must be sorted, picked, transported, assembled into units at different destinations, and then loaded onto delivery trucks or vans. Most of the work in the past was done manually.

Covid is dealing a double blow to these warehouse operations. Larger or heavier packages require two people to lift-if you want to maintain social distancing, you can't do that. The loading and unloading of trucks or vans is also usually done manually. "Even before Covid, these were not good solutions," said Michael Worcester of TAWI Vacuum Lifting Systems. "This is why we have been bringing logistics and distribution-oriented products to the market.

"Historically, the logistics industry has maintained a large number of manual handling. It has not considered the health and safety or efficiency of automation like other industries. Now it has started, and we have products."

A Covid-related product developed by TAWI is a mobile vacuum lifter. It is designed for efficient promotion and order picking. "It has an articulated arm with two joints and a vacuum lifter at the end," Worcester said. "It can be simply mounted on any forklift or pallet truck and driven or towed around the warehouse. When you arrive at the lifting location, you can start the vacuum pump with a button. When the vacuum pump is turned on, the support legs will automatically drop; the articulated arm enables you to Go deep into the back wall of the pallet rack or container so that the vacuum cleaner can grasp the object it needs. It can withstand any load up to 80 kg, and can use a variety of suction cups to lift anything from sacks to laminates or tires. Quickly The connection device allows you to easily switch the cups. Compared to most vacuum systems, it uses battery power, so it can go wherever transport vehicles can go."

He said that the goal related to Covid is to reduce or best eliminate two people's promotion. "Up to now, almost all flat packaging upgrades have been done by two people. Now it needs one person to do it-and we have lifting aids that can do just that. Anyway, this is good for productivity. In addition to social distancing and employee safety. Lifting 100 tables every day, you will be tired at the end of the day. The vacuum cleaner is always running. So this is a more lasting change than Covid."

The Swedish company TAWI was acquired by the American company Piab earlier this year. "We are currently running in parallel," Worcester said. "In the long run, TAWI will continue to be a brand."

Mobile ordering is a development of TAWI. Another Covid-related product comes from the Piab design team, and Worcester said it could revolutionize logistics.

"It is marketed as Vaculex ParceLift; it is a vacuum device installed on the frame at the end of the conveyor belt, and its purpose is to unload trucks and trucks. It is a solution to a huge problem that has always existed in the logistics industry. So far, the load is all caused by What is done by humans may involve poor posture, low headroom, heavy or repetitive movements, these are the main causes of back and shoulder injuries. This is a global problem, and Covid makes the situation worse.

"The conveyor belt can extend from the warehouse to the rear of the truck; the vacuum lift lifts the loads one by one and places them on the conveyor belt; therefore the truck is emptied and only one operator does not have to lift or move anything by himself. Packages can be packed in bulk , Size, shape and weight vary, up to 40 kg. It can be fully integrated into many types of telescopic conveyors, whether it is installed in the factory or modified at the customer’s premises. In my opinion, this is an industry Game changer."

“The general story about material handling is not limited to logistics,” said Christian Viehmann, managing director of 3i, based in Germany. "Many factories have also reduced the number of available employees. People are quarantined or sick. Suddenly, there are fewer workers, but tasks still need to be completed; factories now need equipment to support the labor force. It used to require two people to complete a task. It quickly gave way to one person using the auxiliary elevator equipment. Therefore, the efficiency level suddenly increased at a very high rate.

"This is a trend that has occurred in Germany for many years; our labor force has been aging, and there are fewer and fewer young people who want to engage in manual labor or lifting jobs. So this is not about replacing workers; it is about being scarce. Work. Covid has greatly accelerated this trend: it is faster than the normal cycle of equipment and efficiency improvements.

"Our products are usually suitable for feeding materials into processing machines such as presses, or moving goods in and out to supply production lines and other tasks. These tasks suddenly lack workers, and the demand for these products has increased sharply, so that our factory in April There was a serious capacity problem in May and it was unable to meet the demand. One product that was very needed was our basic lifting device, which was noiseless and operated by a simple pistol grip; it was very accurate and precise and quiet. We There are also mobile "lift and drive" devices for lifting and tilting boxes. About 80% are individually customized for customers to install batteries in cars or install ventilation systems in trucks. We have a variety of For all kinds of fixture tools, most loads have some kind of flat upper surface, which can be grasped by vacuum, so we can provide ready-made ones."

Italian vacuum cleaner expert Scaglia Indeva also provides Covidinspired tools to help maintain social distancing. They said that their new intelligent industrial manipulators can do just that. "Only one operator equipped with an Indeva lift assist device can safely move, tilt, turn, and accurately and easily position heavy objects. In the case where two or more operators must work together at close range, it Provides safe human/machine collaborative operation."

They also put the vacuum lifter on the wheels. The Liftronic mobile manipulator they launched earlier this year is as safe, ergonomic and intelligent as all other manipulators in the Liftronic series, but it can be installed on an electric pallet truck, which means it can be used in different workstations in the production and logistics areas Move between, and can carry load between these sites. It can lift and move bags, containers or trash bins and place them on pallets or shelves; when the truck is moving, its four-joint arms can be bent and locked securely. It can reach any side of the truck; the swivel joint at the end of the arm allows continuous rotation of the clamping tool. The air flow occurs inside the arm, so it does not distort the pneumatic tube.

Different picking tools can be installed to handle different types of loads; similarly, the quick connect device allows for changes between them through a simple release and hook mechanism.

Eurotech is another manufacturer that solves the problem of picking a single mixed order from multiple products—or, more succinctly, the challenge of batch size 1. Their new advanced order system picks goods from multiple pallet locations and places them on a single customer pallet.

"Customers are increasingly demanding separate production and faster delivery," they said. "The smaller and smaller batches of orders require efficient and cost-effective production and storage management." Eurotech's customer-specific order picking system is designed to handle panels and other large flat products in various formats and surfaces.

"Manual selection of large flat items requires multiple employees. On the other hand, the fully automated order picking system can provide higher efficiency and safety. Employees no longer need to perform heavy manual labor involved in manual picking, reducing the pressure on their backs and Avoid accidents."

In Eurotech's system, a trolley with a vacuum lifting rack can pick up goods from a prepared pallet in any one of multiple positions and store them on the customer's pallet. An employee operates the user interface to specify the source and destination stations and the picking volume. In order to start its fully automated picking cycle, the machine needs information about which vacuum circuits are activated for different loads. These data are stored in a database or barcode. Then picking is completely automatic. The system is equipped with multiple sensors to prevent errors. For example, it compares the weight of the panel to be lifted with the previously registered data; if the weight matches, the machine executes its cycle. If there is a deviation between the source weight and the target weight, the cycle is interrupted and the machine generates an error notification.

Adhesion is a common problem when handling large flat loads such as panels. The surfaces of two adjacent panels are connected to each other and become difficult to separate. Eurotech's solution uses a bellows suction cup on the vacuum lifting frame to blow air into it to separate the load at the corner.

As an extension of the system, the floating vacuum lifting frame can correct up to 50 mm of misalignment. The integrated linear actuator can adjust the position of the lifting frame to place the load with a maximum deviation of 2 mm between the corresponding edges. This precision protects sensitive surfaces and creates neat stacks that are well aligned.

Trade fairs are usually the occasion for major product launches in the industry, and of course it is another victim of Covid, which did not happen this year. Schmalz cleverly responded by hosting his own virtual trade fair online. They called it SchmalzEXPO, everyone can get it for free through the company's website, and they showcased several new products launched by Schmalz.

These include a new generation of zone grippers for the JumboErgo series of vacuum tube elevators. Named FMP, it can grab flat and heavy workpieces weighing up to 140 kg, even if it covers only part of the suction area.

This means that it can grab, for example, trays or tray-shaped objects that have open space on the surface to be lifted. Even if some of the suction cups of the FMP are above the space and are exposed to the air instead of being sealed by the raised surface, its lifting force is not affected. Schmalz says that FMP is ideal for safely handling cut-out plates, pallets or other workpieces with inconsistent surfaces. It can also easily switch between full surface grabbing and partial coverage grabbing, for example, when loading the machine ergonomically and then removing the cut.

Schmalz also solved the problem of growth in online shopping. "In 2019, online sales increased by more than 11% year-on-year," they said. "One-third of online buyers now place several orders every week. Therefore, warehouses need to optimize their logistics processes and there is a high demand for ergonomic automated lifting equipment that can sort many different items. "Choosing and picking individual items from many different items requires identifying them, selecting them, and then grabbing and lifting them. Another introduction by Schmalz, their 3D-R vision and processing set, solves this field of automated trash bin picking.

A 3D camera system with digital recognition software guides the robotic arm. The end of the robotic arm is equipped with a new ultra-flexible vacuum cup​​, which can grab irregularly shaped objects from almost any direction. The entire system can be put into operation in less than half a day without having a wealth of robotics knowledge.

The vacuum of the suction tool passes through the inside of the robot arm, which means that there is no obstruction by external air lines. An optional swivel module extends its coverage and can even empty the bottom corner of the deep trash can. Intelligent vacuum and pressure switches continuously monitor the grasping process to minimize cycle time.

The suction cup itself is very new and interesting. SVE is bell-shaped with a very thin, soft sealing lip; it is suitable for corners, edges and other free-form surfaces. For example, spray cans can be grasped reliably with high clamping force and optimal sealing, and can be grasped at edges or corners as easily as grasping smooth parts. Regardless of whether the workpiece is stored randomly or sorted in advance, the gripper can reliably remove the workpiece from the bin.

Palamatic was founded in 1985 by Stewart and Sue Bennison, who are still shareholders of the company, and can claim to have introduced vacuum tube lifting technology to the UK. Starting with a system for handling paper and plastic bags, they developed in 2002 a product that has additional relevance today. They repeatedly asked the clean room environment of the pharmaceutical industry to provide vacuum tube elevators, and they developed PalPharmaVac. With a built-in filter and a fully manually detachable "bucketed" cleaning solution design, it is an easy-to-use solution suitable for cleaning or disinfecting air for operators wearing a full set of personal protective equipment and working in downflow rooms. At that time, it was used for lifting and dumping in clean rooms, as well as pouring expensive powder from sacks; however, now and in the foreseeable future, companies whose employees may have to wear PPE to work are likely to find applications.

From an ergonomic point of view, the performance of lifting aids depends on the gantry on which it is suspended, and Palamatic also has the expertise to provide gantry systems that are individually rated for vacuum lifting devices. They are made of stainless steel to minimize internal cavities, and have a flat service to prevent product accumulation and facilitate cleaning. Two new sub-series were recently launched: Uni-LITE series and Uni-LITE Flex series. The difference between them is the stroke they can achieve to ensure the safest ergonomic application for the operator. Uni-LITE is designed for packaging and unpacking applications near waist height and conveyor belt height. It is designed for travel ranges up to 600-700 mm, but it can also be higher. Uni-LITE Flex is used for packing, unpacking, stacking and unstacking, with a wider range of strokes. It is also suitable for larger materials, and the operator does not like to lean over.

Many changes brought about by Covid will continue to exist. Replacing manual lifting with a vacuum device seems to be one of them. 

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