by Lisa Hagel
Handling stone can be a difficult and sometimes hazardous job. That's why Wood's Powr-Grip's below-the-hook vacuum lifters are specifically designed to make stone handling easier and safer.
These lifters are used for handling stone materials such as marble, granite, slate and even limestone and sandstone slabs, under certain conditions. With standard capacities to 3000 lbs [1360 kg], these vacuum lifters can efficiently lift, maneuver and transport large stone slabs between storage racks, CNC machines, slab saws and cutting tables.
Powr-Grip's AC, DC or air-powered vacuum lifters move heavy stone with the aid of forklifts, cranes or overhead hoists. There is no need to wrestle with slings, tongs or hooks which can lead to slab damage and worker injury; instead, Powr-Grip vacuum lifters attach directly to the face of slabs, providing support across the surface. We manufacture a full line of stone flat lifters and tilters:
Our tilters increase speed and efficiency when transferring slabs between upright storage racks and cutting tables or horizontal processing machines, such as CNC's and slab saws.
And Powr-Grip flat lifters are available in a wide variety of styles and capacities for lifting slabs or sheet materials in the horizontal orientation.
Powr-Grip uses innovative engineering throughout our vacuum lifter series to increase safety and productivity in stone handling: By designing our vacuum lifters with many smaller vacuum pads, we minimize the consequences of leakage at any particular vacuum pad. In contrast, competitors' vacuum lifters that have a few large vacuum pads would experience a radical reduction of capacity in the same situation. Powr-Grip's vacuum lifters for stone handling also come standard with vacuum pads that are specially designed to resist abrasion from rough or contaminated stone surfaces.
MT Series tilters feature an above-the-center pivot point, so that slabs automatically hang in the upright position when lifted. Coupled with a remote power source, the resulting narrow profile allows these vacuum lifters to fit between tight, vertical storage racks. PT10 Vacuum Lifters provide effortless power tilting and optimal support of heavy slabs, to prevent breakage when stone is tilted.
Vacuum lifters from Wood's Powr-Grip offer a variety of other standard features and options that are ideally suited to stone handling: All of our PT10HV11F and MT Series Stone Lifters come standard with Foam Pad Rings and Individual Pad Shutoffs:
Foam Pad Rings enable vacuum lifters to seal onto honed, saw-cut and even some flame finished stone, as well as polished stone surfaces.
Individual Pad Shutoffs allow vacuum lifters to handle irregularly shaped slabs or counter tops with sink cut-outs. These features are optionally available throughout our other vacuum lifters for stone handling.
To simplify slab handling within the stone yard, we offer forklift mounting options on selected vacuum lifters: MT Series vacuum lifters are suspended from a boom attachment, while the power system is mounted to the cage or back of the lift truck.
In addition, each Powr-Grip vacuum lifter can be equipped with a Vacuum Loss Warning Buzzer, which increases security by sounding an alarm if the lifter does not reach or maintain a vacuum level sufficient for lifting the stone.
Lisa Hagel was the Advertising/Marketing Coordinator for the Wood's Powr-Grip Marketing team. She has experience in marketing, advertising, market research and consulting.