Liftng 180kg chipboard floor panels

[roadkingreggae]

I need to lift and reposition a 38 mm chipboard floor panel from a stack to its final location with suction pads.
I have designed a track mounted lifting frame all I need now is the suction pads.
Does anybody know of a supplier of non powered suction pads that are similar to the things that you see for glass, that can lift 180kg
The boards are covered in a fairly smooth plastic type surface that i am sure is suitable for the pads.
The pads need to be manually applied such as an overcentre locking movement as we have no power available and all this takes place inside, under cover. I have imagined two sets of double suction pads but 4 sets would be ok
Over to you
Thanks

 

[dhwilliams]

Try RS Components Web site (

http://www1.rs

http://www.com

) and type vacuum lifters in the search box. They list 4 variants, including single, double and triple cup with carrying capacities of 25, 40, 70 and 110Kg.

Dave

 

[dhwilliams]

Just a couple of things I thought of after my first post...

If I have calculated correctly, the floor panels must be about 5 square metres and if they are square, more than 2 metres per side. I would suggest a minimum of 3 suction pads to prevent them rocking. The advantage of using 3 rather than 4 is that they will share the load equally. If you use 4, one of them will probably not be doing much unless you have some way of adjusting each connection to your frame.

You should also make sure that the lifting force on each pad is vertical to minimise the chance of them being pulled off (I'm sure you already worked that out!)

I have just found some more suckers on RS - type 288-4872 in the Search Box for some Industrial Grade Lifters.