Process
Replace Manual Process, Protect Products, Cut Cost Pipe, Valve and Fitting Distributor Eliminates Injuries with Automated TAB Wrapper Tornado Orbital Wrapper
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ipe, valve and fitting distributor City Pipe & Supply, Odessa, Texas, has eliminated cuts, scrapes and other reportable incidents that occurred in the packaging and shipping department by replacing its manual stretch-wrapping method with the automated TAB Wrapper Tornado orbital wrapping machine. Cutting workers' compensation claims to zero, the orbital wrapper features patent-pending technology that wraps plastic film 360 degrees around and under the pallet and its load while raised on a forklift to create a sturdy, unitized load in less than one minute, even when wrapping City Pipe & Supply's large, heavy, and oddly shaped products for the oil and gas industry. The new wrapping system replaces the company's manual method, which required two workers to wrap the load by hand while raised on a forklift, passing the film roll back and forth and trying to keep the products in place without tearing the film, knocking the product off the pallet, or bumping their heads working under the pallet. “Nobody enjoyed doing this job, including me,” says Charlie Justice, vice president of City Pipe & Supply. “Now, everybody loves the TAB Wrapper Tornado and nobody wants to go back to wrapping by hand.” Justice purchased the TAB Wrapper Tornado model with an 80-inch wrapping ring for his busiest facility and has since purchased four more with 80” and 100” wrapping rings to automate the process in other locations. “The TAB Wrapper Tornado has
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eliminated injuries and turned a dangerous job into one that our people actually enjoy doing,” says Justice. “I would recommend it to anyone as an upgrade from wrapping pallets by hand.”
Touch-Screen Controls with Built-In Training Guides Included as standard equipment at no extra charge, the touchscreen HMI features a clear, colorful, visual menu structure with built-in training guides for intuitively easy setup, operation and preventative maintenance. The video training guides present operating instructions on screen at the machine rather than in print, on DVD, or online for fast learning, superior retention and convenient review at any time. Setting the wrapping parameters based on the pallet load, replacing empty stretch-film rolls, and understanding the designed-in safety features are among the instructional videos included. Developed to enable entry-level workers to safely manage the wrapping function, the new touch-screen control panel is included on all three TAB Wrapper Tornado Perfect Storm models and on custom models.
New Multi-Pallet Accumulation Zones Developed to improve efficiency and keep lift trucks from idle time, the multi-pallet accumulation zones set modular, powered
