OptiLoad Automated Glass Storage and Handling Systems

OptiLoad is an automated glass-handling and storage system that allows glass fabricators to manage more glass SKUs in less factory floor space while increasing capacity, efficiency, yields and safety. One OptiLoad system can serve multiple cutting tables without any table rarely having to wait for the next glass to arrive when the current plate is cut.

OptiLoad handles residential, commercial and architectural glass up to 130 by 240 inches. And we will be introducing a new OptiLoad reporting system that can report inventory, productivity, downtime, preventative maintenance needs and more.

OptiLoad’s benefits, which represent significant advances in glass handling and storage, are achieved by:

• Serve glass to multiple cutting systems from one inventory. OptiLoad move packs or racks of glass instead of single lite. eliminating duplicate inventories and loading systems. Since the machine is far less busy because it moves racks instead of lites, you no longer need additional loading systems for second or third glass cutters.
• Reduce the number of people needed to manage and move raw glass inventory.
• Never touch raw glass. Even partially-used packs are automatically moved to a waiting position without touching or strapping.
• Improve safety by eliminating carts and workers inside the storage and loading area. A forklift or crane operator loads packs at a dedicated station. Done!
• Capacity increase by consistently having the next lite ready at each station before the current unit is complete.  The system moves packs of glass to each cutter, not just a lite. This results in a higher throughput of glass cutting through a single line in any given shift. This higher capacity comes with a lower labor cost per square foot of glass.
• More glass in less space. The system’s dense storage technology makes it possible to have more lite types and sizes in a smaller space than currently being used. Before OptiLoad, a customer had two loading systems with eight SKUs, both systems with the exact same inventory. In the same floor space, OptiLoad gives them up to 46 stations of inventory feeding both cutting lines.
• Higher yields. By giving the optimizer multiple sizes of the same lite product, cutting yields can be improved by 5 to 10 percent. Glass is typically the highest cost material in insulating glass fabrication. Saving 5 percent in a $2 million annual glass purchase is significant—and generates enough profit to rapidly pay for the system. Which makes all the other benefits, including safety, free.
• Improve safety by eliminating carts and workers inside the storage and loading area. A forklift or crane operator loads packs at a dedicated station.
• Flexibility. OptiLoad handles any size and package type of glass lites, including wood crates. It can store glass to be transported to cutting, insulating or distribution. Users no longer have to commit to 96 X 130s vs 72 X 96 and no longer have to store crated glass in a separate area.
• All glass is loaded at a single location, including rack glass (72 X 96), glass packs (102 X 144) and glass in wood crates. Loading in one location allows for better protection and safer practices. Once loaded, there is no further interaction with direct labor, providing a major improvement in safety in one of the highest injury areas in a glass fabrication plant.