Hagie Manufacturing is a provider of agricultural crop sprayers as well as large snow removal equipment for airports. The company was expanding its facility and was seeking improved workflow and better lifting solutions for its sub-assembly and final assembly work bays for crop sprayers.
The existing final assembly area was only 30’ wide, though the crop sprayers can be as long as 48’ across. The final assembly area was also not conveniently located, so parts needed to be transferred from sub-assembly to final assembly, which took additional time and resources.
A new building was constructed that would allow the sub-assembly and final assembly areas to be side-by-side, which resolved the workflow problem. Now the company looked for the best option for material handling.
The sub-assembly area featured a “hybrid” system with Gorbel’s enclosed aluminum track bridges with a 34’ span, three at 1 ½ ton capacity, and three at ½ ton capacity, each with an electric chain hoist. By using Gorbel’s aluminum bridges on patented track runways, operators had the benefit of the lightweight and easy to move bridges, while at the same time were able to use all 6 bridges along the runway without buffers. This made all of the space within the work bay accessible at anytime without creating “dead zones”.