Stainless Pipe and Fittings is the largest independent stainless steel distributor in Australia. Recently they completed a new state of the art 20,000 sq metre facility at Jandakot, Perth, Western Australia. As part of their new operation they acquired two Hubtex, man up, battery electric, multi directional side loaders with 9 metre lift heights to work within a narrow aisle cantilever rack system.
The machines handle long length material up to 2500kg and can free range outside the rack system but once in the aisles are guided between guide rails. This means the machines work in the smallest possible aisle, and the operator workload is reduced allowing improved picking efficiency. Safety, picking speed, product access and production capacity have increased dramatically with the implementation of the cantilever racking systems and Hubtex equipment. Product damage is also reduced due to reduced handling and the highly accurate electric over hydraulic actuating systems.
The man up capability means that the operator is always working at eye level to the load so there is no problem positioning long material even at 9 metres height. The man up facility and configuration of the operator’s position in the cabin allows him to order pick individual profiles on the machine, directly from its storage location. Light unit weight profiles can be picked and accumulated on the forks by hand. Individual heavy unit weight pieces can be order picked using the tip of the forks. The combination of the positively inclined racking arms and the specially fabricated stainless steel tines allow full orders of varying sizes and types can be consolidated on the machine without the fear of contaminating the product or the need to remove the whole pack, take it to a commissioning station, remove the required lengths and returning the remainder of the pack to its storage location. This methodology can cut picking times by 50%.
The fork carriage also moves up and down independently of the main mast so the operator can adjust the fork height to ensure that he is always picking at a comfortable height.
