Smart handling

In many manufacturing industries, particularly in hot-dip galvanizing, which is the primary target market for GIMECO, there is a need to handle pieces of various shapes and sizes, some of which can be quite heavy. Even in highly automated facilities, the loading and unloading phases of materials are heavily reliant on manual operations. In the context of hot-dip galvanizing, these operations involve attaching (or jigging) and detaching (or unjigging) pieces to be galvanized to racks, which then facilitate their movement throughout the galvanizing process once they are placed on the galvanizing line.

Each rack can carry up to several hundred pieces, ranging in weight from one kilogram to hundreds of kilograms. Currently, these operations are carried out manually, relying on the physical strength of operators or the assistance of tools and equipment such as forklifts, electric pallet jacks, overhead cranes, and more. These phases represent a waste of time and resources (無駄, muda) without significant added value, they are also characterized by poor ergonomics and against lean production principles.

While the challenge has been partially addressed in cases where loading involves high volumes and a low number of variations (e.g. galvanized guardrails), successful experiments with magnet-pneumatic systems for loading and unloading items onto racks have been conducted. However, the issue of handling little volumes of various items remains unsolved.

The use of traditional automation forms, including robots or other fully autonomous systems, is not easily applicable due to the significant variability in the pieces to be handled.
These pieces often come in small series with few identical items or even as individual pieces with highly variable sizes and masses. Furthermore, their unorganized arrangement at the pick-up points presents additional challenges. In isolated cases, some company have begun using electric or pneumatic weight balancers already available on the market. However, these systems typically only assist with lifting, while the operator is still responsible for translating and rotating the piece. Additionally, the gripping mechanism for these pieces is often a simple hook used for lifting.

Here is where GIMECO comes in with its innovative spirit, offering the hot-dip galvanizing industry (but not only) a great solution that aims to address sustainability needs and overcome the typical limits of the sector. Here comes MOVER™.