Pneumatic Product’s vacuum specialist, Edwin Verhoeff, was involved in the retrofit of a customer’s Timber Gantry de-stacking system due to poor grip performance and reliability from a competitor’s gripper design.
Brief: Problems With Existing Competitor Gripper
The company was experiencing issues with their existing gantry system supplied by a competitor from initial installation. This included the dropping of boards and poor reliability, due to dust and moisture getting into the competitor’s foam pad grippers. Whilst they tried to improve the situation, ultimately a solution could not be found to give the company satisfactory results.
Investigative Process: Edwin Attended In Person To Evaluate Existing Grippers
Edwin was called in by the company to inspect the competitor’s grippers, where it was determined the design could not handle the dust and moisture well. They just weren’t tough enough to handle the application’s environment.
Solution: Kenos KHVG Heavy Duty Foam Grippers – Tougher Grippers!
Edwin discussed the application with the PIAB-Kenos technical support team and the Kenos KHVG Heavy Duty Foam grippers were proposed as a retrofit. These grippers feature a more robust construction, a more dust/moisture tolerant poppet valve design and the foam was also not as susceptible to moisture issues. The customer decided to purchase 1 gripper for trial on the existing timber gantry system. Edwin worked with the site maintenance engineer to integrate the Kenos gripper into the existing vacuum system. Once installed the gripper performed extremely well. From this great result, the customer then decided to replace the remaining 4 grippers with this KHVG gripper.
Result: One Very Happy Customer With Reliable Kenos Grippers
After installation, the customer experienced a significant improvement in gripping performance – no more dropped boards! The general reliability also improved dramatically. The grippers have been in service for more than 4 years now and the customer is still enjoying the experience of the tough, reliable Kenos KHVG grippers.
Project specifications
- Timber Pallet manufacturer de-stacking rough sawn timber.
- Customer was having issues with a relatively new timber de-stacker gantry system supplied by a competitor.
- The customer contacted Pneumatic Products about board dropping issues due to above system.
- Industrial Vacuum Specialist, Edwin Verhoeff, worked on appropriate solutions from the PIAB-Kenos range.
- Edwin worked closely with the site maintenance manager and Kenos technical support to integrate the Kenos heavy duty KHVG grippers into the existing gantry frame and vacuum system.
Are you experiencing concerns with your existing timber gantry?
If you are experiencing any existing timber gantry installation issues or are considering installing timber transfer machinery in your plant, be it Stacking & De-stacking timber or CLT production, contact Edwin to discuss your requirements.