Taking panes from the rack
Removing large formats from transport racks and uprighting them – the movement that damages most edges by hand.
Industry
Handling technology for glass and ceramics production
Glass forgives no second chance. What falls is not only lost but dangerous – which is why sizing a vacuum lifter for glass is not a calculation step but the core of the whole project.
- Capacity of the glass vacuum lifter
- 600 kg
- Swing from horizontal to vertical
- 90°
- Separate vacuum circuits for redundancy
- 2 circuits
01 — Applications
Breakage is not scrap. Breakage is an injury.
Typical handling tasks in Glass and ceramics — and what they demand technically.
Assembling insulating glass
Bringing two or three panes plane-parallel to each other without touching the edge seal.
Handing over to processing
Bringing panes to cutting, grinding and drilling stations, horizontal or vertical as the machine requires.
Stacking ceramic panels
Taking large-format panels from the kiln, turning and stacking them – heavy, brittle and edge-sensitive at once.
Setting facade elements
Setting elements into frames in prefabrication, with fine adjustment in three directions.
02 — What matters
What Glass and ceramics demands of handling technology
Why two vacuum circuits are standard here
On every vacuum lifter, reservoir, check valve and warning device are basic equipment. With glass the design goes further: two separate vacuum circuits with their own cups ensure that the failure of one circuit does not drop the load. That is not an extra for especially careful plants but the usual state of the art for vertically held panes – and the reason a glass vacuum lifter looks different from a sheet metal one.
The rotation is the real task
Out of the rack the pane comes vertical, onto the cutting table it goes horizontal, into the frame vertical again. That ninety-degree rotation is the critical moment: the centre of gravity travels throughout, and without damping the pane pulls at the tipping point. So the beam gets a damped swing axis with detents – and the position of that axis relative to the centre of gravity matters more than capacity alone.
Edges are the other risk
Cut glass is sharp at the edges and delicate at the same time: a knock produces a shell chip that devalues the pane, and a slip produces a cut. Both have the same cause – the pane is guided by hand. A device that holds the load and is only guided solves both problems at once, and better than any protective equipment.
03 — Device catalogue
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Equipment for Glass and ceramics
Design, payload and reach — the shortlist for this industry.
Lifting equipment · Balancers
01
Skyline Rope Balancer
Weightless handling – floating instead of lifting.
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Lifting equipment · Conveyor systems
02
Rail System
The whole area covered – in X and Y.
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Lifting equipment · Manipulators
03
Articulated Arm Hoist
The jointed arm for millimetre-precise handling.
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Lifting equipment · Manipulators
04
I-GO Articulated Boom
Articulated arm plus integrated lifting axis.
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04 — Services
From analysis to inspection
01
Design
CAD design in 2D and 3D – from requirements analysis to production-ready drawings.
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02
Workstation Analysis
We look at the workstation before we talk about equipment.
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03
Safety Devices
Sizing of safety valves and rupture discs – the last link in the safety chain.
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04
Lifting Technology
Lifting equipment, manipulators and balancers for industry, medical technology and logistics.
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05 — Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions from Glass and ceramics
How large may a pane be?
The limit is rarely weight but deflection. From about three metres edge length a beam is needed to spread the cups over several points – otherwise the pane sags between the cups and stresses reach values at which glass breaks. Formats up to six metres are well manageable that way.
What happens on power failure in the vertical position?
Nothing, if properly sized: the vacuum reservoir holds the pressure for several minutes, the check valves prevent venting, and the warning reports the failure immediately. That time is enough to set the pane down under control. Without a reservoir the installation would not be permissible.
Does it work with coated glass?
Yes, with the right sealing lip. Critical are soft coatings that take marks; there we use larger cups with lower vacuum and softer material. We test that on a sample, because manufacturer coatings differ markedly.
And ceramics?
Similar kinematics, different sizing: ceramic panels are heavier per area, often slightly porous and even more edge-sensitive. Porous surfaces noticeably reduce holding force – there we work with a much larger reserve and test holding time in a trial.
07 — Guides
Read more
9 min
01
Grippers & lifting devices
The unit lifts. The gripper decides whether it works.
Read the article
9 min
02
Risk assessment: lifting and carrying
There is no 25-kilogram limit. There is an assessment.
Read the article
9 min
03
Sizing vacuum lifters
Vacuum is the fastest pick-up – as long as the surface plays along.
Read the article
Contact
We do not know your shop floor yet — but we know the task.
One short conversation usually settles more than three quotations. Call or write — you will reach an engineer directly.