Schwenk GmbH in 72290 Loßburg, an innovative service provider for sheet-metal working and for the manufacture of complete sheet-metal assemblies, uses a laser-cutting machine and a high-pressure water-jet cutting machine for cutting various metal sheets into parts of various sizes.

The laser-cutting machine is loaded by one man with the aid of a vacuum lifting device of the type VacuMaster Vario 500-8, whose eight large vacuum plates can easily lift metal sheets weighing up to 450 kg and with dimensions of up to 1.5 x 3.0 metres. Operation by one man is possible because the extended operator handle of the VacuMaster Vario permits the safe lifting, guidance and positioning of the metal sheets, which have to be taken from a stack and placed on the machine table. For this, the vacuum lifting device, which includes its own vacuum pump, is suspended from a monorail overhead crane running on a rail with a length of 2.3 metres, permitting a suitably large working area without interfering with other operations on and around the machine. After the sheet has been cut, the operator removes the finished parts manually and returns them to the material flow for further machining.

The loading of the high-pressure water-jet cutting machine is carried out by a vacuum lifting device of the type VacuMaster Eco, which operates without external power supplies of any kind, since it is self-powered. The vacuum is generated from the weight of the workpiece as the crane pulls a piston out of a cylinder on the lifting device. Depending on the weight of the load, the lifting motion generates a vacuum in the cylinder and this grips the workpiece securely. Messrs. Schwenk use a VacuMaster Eco 500/1 with a large vacuum pad, which is capable of handling loads weighing up to 500 kg. The lifting device is suspended on a chain hoist mounted on one arm of a fork-lift truck, which means that it can be used very flexibly, especially as it needs no external power supply. Thanks to the vacuum lifting device VacuMaster Eco 500/1, the high-pressure water-jet cutting machine can now be loaded and unloaded - ergonomically and effeciently - by a single person.