Part of the global Morgan Technical Ceramics group, MTC Certech manufactures ceramic cores used to make high-performance parts for the aerospace and industrial turbine industries, among others. MTC achieved an impressive three environmental, management and health and safety standards in 2009. To support these achievements, the company asked CESAB dealer, Hitec Lift Trucks, to help it review its materials handling operations.
Hitec Lift Trucks identified a number of safety and accessibility issues, with pedestrian counterbalanced stackers used in several challenging environments including the die store where a wide range of tooling equipment weighing up to a tonne per piece is kept. Stackers were also used in the injection shop where 16 machines of varying capacities are fitted with different tooling and the kiln room where cores are fired at a temperature of 1200°.
Operators were using the stackers to move tooling from the die store to the injection shop, with a great deal of physical effort required to use the stackers to manually push the tooling into the right position in the machines.
Manual stackers were in use in the kiln room because its narrow aisles and restricted space meant that equipment in this area had to be small and highly manoeuvrable to prevent it from hitting the gas elbows or pipes. The pedestrian stackers had to lift the saggers onto the kiln beds and because they could not be used with precision, the operator would often have to manually assist in placing the sagger on the kiln bed.
Hitec Lift Trucks organised a demonstration of the highly manoeuvrable and compact CESAB Blitz 100 three-wheel forklift.
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“This is an excellent example of a challenging situation being resolved to benefit a business and employees. Good materials handling practice makes all the difference in safety, productivity and business performance.”
Hitec Director
Andrew Selbie
