Pneumatic hoist made child's play

Problem ; lifting anything in a factory is potentially hazardous. The current production rate in the Skoda car factory requires that two wheels be lifted and put onto car hubs every 60 seconds. The problem is, it was found to be difficult to do this with complete safety and accuracy using pneumatic lifting hoists with conventional push button controls. Solution: Czech company Kavon, an agent for Ingersoll-Rand, has a new electronically controlled manipulator which uses software to turn a conventional pneumatic hoist into something intelligent which the company says, "any child could use safely". Instead of push buttons, the Intelift hoist is equipped with a handle fitted with strain gauge force sensors. Lifting the handle causes the hoist to raise, until upward pressure is released, and pushing the handle causes the hoist to lower, until downward pressure is released. When tested by Eureka, the effect of taking hold of the handle was that the load could be raised and lowered as if it was almost weightless. The system is backlash free so no perceptible movement has to occur before the strain gauges in the root of the handle detect bending pressure. Additional software and position sensing ensures that a wheel cannot be released unless its whole weight is either on the ground, or on the car axle – providing additional safety. Wheels are turned from horizontal to vertical through a 45 degree pivot, with weight evenly balanced on each side of it. Applications: Any lifting, raising or moving system. The idea has already been extended to car seat handling since the original developmentTS Kavon E-mail Kavon