Glass fabrication is getting more complex.
It’s not just size and shapes. There’s an explosion in the variety of coated glass. More glass inventory lowers efficiency and increases space needs.
In the typical facility today, you have no space to manage additional glass inventory. Dense storage of glass use to be nice to have. Now it’s essential.
But that’s not all. You also need to move glass efficiently from storage to loading. And increase yields. And improve safety. And reduce labor costs.
Your cutting department is feeling the pressure
Sales are growing industry-wide. Many of you are at capacity. Yet the average CNC glass cutter is operating only one-third of the time.
That’s right. In a typical cutting operation, two-thirds of the time your machine is idle, waiting for glass to be loaded or breakout to be completed!
You could install more lines, but that costs money and takes even more floor space. And your manual loading systems will still be keeping you inefficient.
What if instead you could…
- Increase glass SKU storage capacity without adding space
- Increase cutting capacity without adding equipment
- Increase cutting yields without slowing production
- Increase safety
- Decrease labor costs
And do it all at the same time? Turns out you can.
Is your current loading system inefficient?
We have seen many loading systems that, when all factors are considered, occupy anywhere from 100 to 175 square feet per raw glass SKU in storage. This waste of space eats into profits and productivity.
Even with the inefficient storage, it’s presently impossible to retrieve much of this inventory without forcing your cutting operation to halt while the glass is being retrieved. This is not a good idea when you’re already running tight.
It is common knowledge that additional sizes will raise the yields. But it is often thought that when considering the space it will occupy, combined with the productivity losses of idled cutters, additional sizes of the same SKU is not achievable.
OptiLoad does it
The OptiLoad system enables you to manage more SKUs in less space and do it more efficiently and safely while increasing yields and decreasing labor costs without adding cutting stations.
How? OptiLoad is flexible. OptiLoad layouts combine the Dense Storage Shuttle (shown here) and/or the Turntable Access System with our Free Fall loader. In all cases, OptiLoad brings the entire pack of glass to the cutter. Cycle time is not wasted.
Click this link for more description and images of the OptiLoad system and components.
50 square feet per SKU, but no limits
The OptiLoad shuttle system takes 600 square feet of storage space for 12 SKUs, or 50 square feet per SKU. An OptiLoad turntable system for six SKUs takes 300 square feet of floor space, again for 50 square feet per SKU.
You are not limited to an arbitrary number of loading stations or certain floor space requirements. We can discuss your needs and customize a plan that fits the space you have.
In most cases, OptiLoad gives you access to more glass, less labor and higher cutting capacity. You may be able to pay for the system in one year or less just from yield improvements.
Double cutting utilization
By having raw glass ready when needed, you can significantly increase the efficiency of your cutting machines. This is nearly always less expensive than adding capacity.
We can show you examples, including how adding a second size can reduce the number of cutting patterns and increase yields, often by more than five percent.
Overall, you can significantly reduce your cutting cost with OptiLoad. We can help you work out the math for your operations. If OptiLoad doesn’t work for you, we’ll tell you.
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