Why make it hard when it can be easy

Loads are lifted every day in industry. Some lifting is automated, but much of it is still done manually. It could be at the beginning of a production line when loading a machine with ingredients out of 25 kg bags. Or at the end of a production line, where packages and sacks coming off a conveyor belt need to be stacked on a pallet. Onto a box sealer and then back down again, or when packing a product. But also afterwards, after the parcel leaves production, at the parcel service.

Most parcel services load containers and trucks loosely with packages when transporting them between sorting centres. Regardless of whether there is an automated sorting system at the sorting centre, the parcels there always have to be unloaded from the containers by hand and then loaded again by hand after sorting.

Usually, a high working speed is required, where even slightly poor posture can quickly lead to injuries. Manual handling therefore means a risk of repetitive strain injuries and serious physical injury, for example spinal injury. This is associated with high sick leave, low productivity, and low employee satisfaction.

In order to counteract this, the Piab subsidiary Vaculex has designed its ParceLift – a vacuum lifter especially designed so that it can easily be integrated into the existing materials handling equipment and can be used in the lorry or container. For this purpose, the Vaculex ParceLift is installed on telescopic conveyors. In this way, it relieves workers even in these confined spaces with low ceiling heights and narrow passageways. With a load capacity of up to 40 kg, it is also ideally suited for heavy packages in a wide variety of shapes, such as boxes, sacks, or metal sheets.

The ParceLift itself has been engineered with high strength / low weight materials, such as carbon fibre composites and aluminium. Correspondingly, the actual lifter only weighs 5.8 kg. This enables a very high work rate during material handling, as the operator can move the lifter quickly and without much effort – providing a sustainable increase in productivity.

The large range of accessories includes options such as lighting or heating, which create a more pleasant working environment in the container.