The Adjustoveyor®

Ron began scouring trade magazines for the materials handling industry. On the edge of one of the pages which had been sent him by another manufacturer concerning a particular piece of equipment, he noticed a picture of an extendible conveyor which was marketed by a foreign manufacturer. He called the company and received its literature, but did not receive an enthusiastic response for his application. Then he heard about Stewart Glapat Corporation, located in Zanesville, Ohio, and discovered that the extendible conveyer was actually invented by its founder in 1946. Why hadn't he known about it all of these years? He called the firm and made an appointment to see its operation and look at the equipment on the assembly floor. When he saw it, he felt he had the answer for which he had been searching. Although the models he saw were not the exact dimensions he needed, he was assured by the engineering manager that his requirements of a wide belt, hydraulic lifting capacity, steep incline and smooth push-button operations could all be easily accommodated. A proposal was prepared, the drawing checked for interface with his dock area requirements and a firm price was issued.

The unit selected featured three telescoping booms which provide fifty one feet of cantilevered extension beyond the fixed section of the unit. A continuous 36 inch wide rough top belt conveyed the wrapped bedding into the vehicle, with the length of the mattress across the unit so that it could be stacked properly in the trailer. The operator was provided pendant controls for all the motions of the Adjustoveyor, and he or she could position the end precisely into the trailer and at the correct insertion height to avoid any lifting. If the item needed to be flipped for better load stability, the operator simply guided the bedding over as it fell onto the stack. Two hydraulic lift cylinders were provided to position the height of the Adjustoveyor within the trailer. A safety "bump" bar was installed which prevented the Adjustoveyor from pinning an employee against a stack of bedding. Ron selected a fixed position design, and later followed this initial installation with an identical unit for his other shipping door.

Now that he knew how to lift the bedding to the proper insertion height, he decided to look at how he could design a system to truly revolutionize the manner by which his entire operation manufactured bedding to match a shipping schedule with distinct drop-off sequences to minimize multiple handling on his dock and at the point of delivery.

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