Presswood line safety
A dual-hazard station: crush risk and 80°C burn injury on the same operator
The 1250 to 1600 ton press take-out station is the most personal risk on a presswood pallet production line. Two injuries stack on the same operator: a press mis-fire during the open-die take-out is a severe crush or shear, and the freshly pressed pallet at around 80°C is a contact burn on every unprotected hand that pulls it. Light curtains and personal protective equipment dampen the outcome, but they do not move the operator out of the zone. AutoG is the automatic pallet take-out robot from EMP, a six-axis arm with a vacuum-suction end effector that works from outside the press open-to-close window, so the dual hazard stops being a human problem.
Why two operators per pair of presses fails on a modern presswood line
The traditional answer is two operators, one at each press, both inside the hazard window twice per cycle. That answer fails for three reasons on a 4 to 5 minute press cycle run around the clock. First, the labor is hard to retain. The work is hot, repetitive, and exposed to the MDI off-gas that vents with the freshly opened die, and recruiting against that combination is a continuing plant-level cost. Second, two operators per two presses scale headcount linearly with the floor. Each new 1250 to 1600 ton press added to the main base adds another two take-out operators, which doubles the per-press exposure footprint every time the floor expands. Third, no safety audit will accept the take-out station as a permanent manual zone once the press has been rated at 1250 to 1600 tons. The audit conclusion is to remove the operator, not to add another pair of heat gloves or another light curtain around the existing manual workflow.
How a six-axis arm with vacuum-suction picking clears the operator out of the take-out zone entirely
AutoG is the automatic pallet take-out robot that fits the presswood pallet exit station. It is a six-axis articulated arm with a vacuum-suction end effector installed at the press exit. The arm reaches into the open die, adsorbs the freshly pressed pallet at around 80°C, transfers it to the stacking position, and returns to wait, all without an operator inside the press danger zone. The control pedestal that runs AutoG sits off the press footprint on a mobile stand, so the line operator supervises the take-out station from a position outside both the crush envelope and the contact-burn envelope. Because the action is the same on every cycle, the take-out station stops being a manual hot and heavy workstation and becomes a transfer cell that the operator never enters during the press open-to-close window, which is the structural reason the crush and burn hazard stops being carried by a person.
What changes at the 1250 to 1600 ton press take-out station when AutoG runs the cycle
With AutoG on the press exit, three things change at the same time on a 1250 to 1600 ton presswood line. The take-out hazard window, the seconds between press-open and press-close, is unmanned on every cycle, so the crush and shear risk is no longer carried by a person reaching into the die. The freshly pressed pallet at around 80°C is handled by vacuum suction on the end effector, so the contact burn on the operator's hands is removed with the reach. One AutoG arm is paired with two presses on the presswood pallet production line, so the per-press operator headcount stops scaling linearly each time another 1250 to 1600 ton press is added to the floor. The line PLC ties the take-out motion to the press open and close signal, so the press danger zone stays empty from the open command to the close command without operator intervention, and the dual hazard on the take-out station is closed at the source instead of being managed by personal protective equipment downstream.
- press danger zone on the 1250 to 1600 ton press stays unmanned from the press-open signal to the press-close signal
- freshly pressed pallet at around 80°C is handled by vacuum suction on the AutoG end effector, no operator hand contact
- one AutoG arm is paired with two 1250 to 1600 ton presses on the presswood pallet production line, replacing the two-operator take-out cell
- line PLC ties the AutoG take-out motion to the press open and close signal so the press hazard zone stays empty without operator intervention
