Who has never heard of Rockwool? A seasoned player in the market for rock wool products where it can call itself the world leader. The group employs a modest 10,500 motivated people across 38 different countries.
Rockwool plays a central role for every company in the Rockwool Group, as it serves as the base material for virtually every product they manufacture. Rockwool is used in numerous applications in many different sectors. They supply many companies with building insulation, acoustic ceilings and external wall cladding systems, but their products are also used in other sectors such as horticulture, process industry, shipping, etc.
At Rockwool, the well-being of staff is paramount
Besides a passion for business, Rockwool also has a big heart for the well-being of its employees. To ease the burden on their employees, they have invested in various ergonomic lifting solutions from TAWI for their production site in Belgium.
The ergonomic challenges
For years, boxes between 20 and 30kg were stacked manually on a pallet. After a brief calculation, it was concluded that each operator handled at least 7200kg per shift. Of course, you can understand that handling 7200kg every day does not have a very positive effect on the physical well-being of the employees.
In addition, from time to time a machine had to be converted in order to fit a different mould. Such a mould has a maximum weight of 100kg and Rockwool would also have liked to find a solution for this.
Finally, the guide shaft was disassembled, adjusted and reassembled on the machine every day. This, too, was a tough job for which they had to use two sturdy bears. Rockwool not only wanted to protect the health of its operators, but also to see whether a man could be saved.
For all these reasons, Rockwool decided to make ergonomics a priority and invest in it.
The ergonomic solutions
Logitrans joined forces with Rockwool to analyse the material handling challenges on site. In this way it was possible to offer the best solution for their challenge.
Rockwool invested in no less than five vacuum lifting systems, in order to be able to load pallets. They also chose two lifting carts with adapted tooling, so that both the guide shaft and the moulds can be handled without any physical load.
Danny Flass, supervisor of the production site in Belgium, explains the choice with the following words:
"The investment in Tawi tools pays off quickly because of the clear health benefits for the employees."
