Gorbel reconfigures paint line for two Easy Arms

The pump manufacturer client has been reviewing its processes and redesigning its every work cell in its factory over the past five years as it moved to produce a new product.

The pump manufacturer decided to upgrade the paint line, and installed two Easy Arms.

The first freestanding Gorbel Easy Arm was installed five years ago to automate lifting heavy parts onto a moving conveyor on the paint line.

Deciding to install a second Easy Arm, the company moved the first Easy Arm to the back of the conveyor to unload the finished, painted parts from the line.

To replace the Easy Arm’s original lifting function, a small Gorbel overhead crane with three tracks was installed.

Operating on three tracks enabled the second piece of equipment to cover a longer stretch of the paint line conveyor than the freestanding model.

From one track, a 1000lb capacity electric hoist was suspended to lift and move heavier loads.

From the other two tracks, the company used a Gorbel Underhung Easy Arm, which travels the full length of the conveyor.

The Underhung Easy Arm was not new, but moved to this application from a previous facility.

The underhung style had similar capacities to the previous freestanding model, but was able to move along with the conveyor, said Gorbel.

Engineers saw improvements in the overall conditions at the factory with the installation.

A manufacturing engineer said: “We loved the original Easy Arm, but we realized we could do a better job staging our products and reducing forklift moves if we lined up several baskets of parts and had an Easy Arm that could reach them all without repositioning.”

“That was our primary goal, and it’s worked perfectly. Additionally, now that the Easy Arm® can move further along the conveyor, new employees who are on the paint line for the first time don’t have such a narrow window to hit the moving conveyor because they can move along the whole line.”

“What I didn’t consider originally was the amount of flexibility we’ve gained with this work process using the Easy Arm. I can pretty much put anybody on this job and know that they won’t have any problem with the moving and lifting involved.”