Transporting 400mm Pallets between HMC's

[Charlie Pierson]

We have two Mazak HCN4000 horizontals showing up by June 10.

Our Tsugami's have 300mm pallets and we can easily transport them between machines w/ a lifting table on wheels and some muscle.

I fear that the 400mm pallets are going to be too heavy/clumsy for that approach.

Does anyone have a favorite solution to this problem ?? (crane on wheels, etc).

Brand names would be appreciated also

 

thanks in advance

 

cp

[Joe788]

The pallets are HEAVY. Did you buy a bunch of extra pallets? They are a pain in the xxxx to change too. The 4000 is probably low enough that you could just use a regular ol' cherry picker for car engines though.

 

I bought two extra pallets with my 5000, and swapping them out can be a stressful operation. You end up holding your breath on the first pallet change each time. If I buy another standalone, I'll remove the side edge locating pads, put delrin plugs into all of the tapped holes, put MPower Speedloc receivers straight into the pallet, and then use Speedlocs for changing tombstones and large fixtures.

 

 

http://www.modernind.com/SPEEDLOC-SITE/MII-014-FOR_CLIENT/profile.htm

[robk]

We had a pretty cool setup @ my last place of employment. We were able to slide the pallets (loaded with tombstones, rotary tables, or empty) off to the side of the machine for changing between machines. It also allowed us to have a couple of pallets on standby @ all times. It was a poor mans pallatech system, but it worked great.

 

 

[Charlie Pierson]

We bought 2 xtra pallets / machine.

The Mazaks are 2 pallet versions, the company didn't want to spring for the multi-pallet versions due to cost and floorspace restrictions, and they are hoping not to have to buy 20-30 more pallets to accommodate our existing Tsugami 300mm fixtures.

 

I'll be taking a much closer look at the HCN4000s next week to see if a modified engine hoist will fit.

 

cp

[Craig-B]

We use a Big Joe powered straddle trucks and design a attachment for the forks that you connect to the pallet to lift in and out. It makes pallet changeover less than 10min. If you need more info on this just email me.

http://www.bigjoeforklifts.com/pdf_spec_sheet/pdi.pdf

 

 

There is also a company called Midaco that makes systems for that.

http://www.midaco-corp.com/pdfs/MIDACO%20Full%20Line%20Catalog%20for%20Email%20&%20Web.pdf

[SKIR68]

We had 4 1000mm tables with 4foot tombstones on them. Its a Mori Seki MH1000. The only way to change them was an overhead 7.5 ton gantry crane!

[Psychomill]

A 400mm pallet isn't that heavy and changing them on a Mazak (or any HMC I can think of) is breeze.

 

To cart it around, you can buy a steel part cart from Grainger/MSC type of thing. Just get one that's got a high enough rating to handle your set ups as well. Most 400mm machines can only lift around 800-1000 pounds of set up so add that to your pallet weight and get a cart. I can roll around 630mm and 800mm pallets the same way so I'm sure a 400mm is no sweat.

 

As for lifting them in, a HCN4000 is low enough so you could use a cherry picker but that is a PITA. Doesn't roll around very well with a dangling weight and grime on your concrete floor can fight with you. A "Big Joe" as mentioned is a nice alteranative or any small forklift. Jib cranes work great as well and if you can place it right, have it work for 2 machines. Jib cranes are pretty cheap too and can be bought off of eBay or something for a very low price.