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Moving Out The Old Walk-in Cooler and Freezer Panel Press

Posted in Imperial Ideas by mmathews on 09/11 at 11:13 PM

Friday we moved our new panel press into place, replacing our oldest press. See photos of the big move.

There comes a time when old equipment just can’t keep up with new production demands. This time we made a big move.

Friday we shut down our panel press area, all three presses, and let a backlog of frames build up while we moved our old vertical panel press out of the area. Then we cleaned the area and moved our new panel press into place. The old panel press handled our largest panels, but it was slower to set up and operate than our horizontal presses.

The new horizontal panel press holds more panels on each platen than the old press, more than either of our other two horizontal presses, and the new press has more platens than the old press. Better yet, it takes up less floor space than the old vertical press so the panel press crew has more room to move and the work flow is smoother.

Here’s pictures of the move:

Our old press

Positioning a dolly under the new press.

A second dolly positioned under the new press.

Pulling the new press out of the way where the old press will be stored.

Leaving just enough room between the wall and the new press for the old press to move.

Moving the old press out of it’s spot and down the wall, and starting on cleanup for placing the new press.

Finishing and inspecting the cleanup before placing the new press.

Moving the new panel press into place.

We spent the weekend making final adjustments on the new panel press and preparing it for joining the work flow on Monday morning. More pictures and stories to come.

Comments:

Just a revision to your story. The vertical press is not our oldest. untill the 25ft press, it was infact our newest press. The vertical press also has more platens not less that the new press; 17 to 9. Biggest advantage is the speed of turn around and the 1 foot longer in platen length.

By David Criss on 09/17/2008

Thanks for the clarification, David. Yo’re right, the turn-around speed and resulting throughput are the buggest advantage.

By mmathews on 10/17/2008