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A 2 mm steel sheet measuring 2,000 × 1,000 weighs a good 31 kilograms. A person can carry that. What they cannot do is guide it horizontally on their own without it tipping, swinging or cutting at the edge. That is why two people stand at many press brakes – one of them only because the sheet has two sides.
From the stack to the press, load, turn after the first flange, position again and finally stack. Between each step there is a grip on the sharp edge. The sheet is thin and flexible: lift it on one side and it sags. It has to lie flat against the stop or the angle will not come out clean. The area in front of the press is tight; a jib would push the operator away from the foot pedal.
Three stations on one area call for an area, not a circle. A light crane or rail system above the press opens it up in X and Y; the balancer hangs from the trolley and makes the sheet weightless. The operator pulls it across the area as if it had no weight and keeps the foot pedal underneath at all times. A slewing jib would either have half-enclosed the press or failed to reach the stacking place.
A beam gripper with four to six suction pads spreads the load across the sheet and keeps it flat. For turning, a swivel axis in the beam rotates the sheet through 180 degrees – the operator releases the lock, turns it with two fingers and engages it again. What matters is the safeguard: a check valve with vacuum reservoir holds the sheet even on pressure loss, and a gauge in the line of sight shows before lifting whether the vacuum is there.
The real gain is not ergonomics but the number of grips on the cut edge. Where the sheet is only guided and no longer carried, nobody reaches under it any more. Cuts on sheet edges are the most frequent reportable injury in fabrication; they do not disappear through gloves but through the hand no longer needing the edge.
Weightless handling – floating instead of lifting.
View device Lifting equipment · BalancersArticulated reach meets weightless floating.
View device Lifting equipment · Conveyor systemsThe whole area covered – in X and Y.
View deviceYes, with the right pads. Oil is uncritical for flat pads as long as the surface is sealed; perforations, deep scoring and scale are critical. For perforated or rough sheets we use foam pads with a larger area, or switch to a magnet lifter where the material allows.
A vacuum reservoir with a check valve holds the vacuum long enough for the load to be set down safely; a warning signal reports the drop. With vacuum lifters working above people this safeguard is not an option but the state of the art – we always include it in the design.
Often yes, and that is the more economical route: a system with two trolleys serves two adjacent stations as long as the paths do not cross. As soon as two operators need the same area at the same time, a second system is cheaper than the downtime.
One short conversation usually settles more than three quotations. Call or write — you will reach an engineer directly.
Start typing – for example “balancer”, “SAP” or “pipe stress”.
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