Stepping into modern manufacturing with Combilift

Queensland composite panel supplier Link Composites uses Combilift forklifts to provide a safer, space-saving materials handling process at its new factory on the Sunshine Coast.

Link Composites is one of Australia’s leading advanced composite materials and systems suppliers. With experience working in the composites industry in Victoria, managing director William Robinson started the business in 2018 after identifying a gap in the market for a volume supplier of fibreglass sandwich panels and despite clear challenges from the pandemic, has not looked back.

“We’re investing in design – we all have that front of mind,” he said. “We have a big focus on research and development which helps with product diversity and innovative designs.”

The company uses high quality, lightweight, efficient composite materials to manufacture panel systems. Its production methods include resin infusion, vacuum bagging, and more recently a hot melt continuous panel lamination line. Robinson explained Link Composites also provide cutting services, with three CNC routers in house for all the profile cutting for windows, door cut-outs or the overall shape of whatever unit customers are building.

“What we’re trying to do is encourage a transition of current build methods to new products – composite products using advanced materials,” he said. “We’ve got core materials here which are 100 per cent recycled so the environmental impact of residential construction can be reduced. All that aside, it’s just a far quicker method of building. I think a step forward for the construction industry is to go to a panel system, and to educate existing trades people in the use of advanced materials along the way. By supplying a complete panel set to our RV customers they can meet current demand by significantly reducing their build times.”

Link Composites utilises Combilift’s multi directional counterbalance forklift, the CB3000, to save space and create a more efficient material handling environment. The first Combilift unit was purchased for the previous facility in Nambour, where the factory space was designed around the capabilities of the forklift. Much of the floor was taken up by six vacuum tables, which laminated large format sandwich panels.

“The Combilift is key not only for its material handling capability, but for that multi directional function,” Robinson explained. “Our panels can be up to 15 metres in length, so the long loading method of the Combilift is something we rely on.”

Combilift’s CB forklift was introduced in 2006, where the company identified a market for customers that needed to use a regular forklift for handling palletised loads, but also the ability to drive sideways when handling long loads. Regular forklifts are designed for handling palletised loads, so the different design gives the vehicle an ability to travel sideward.

Given the success of the Combilift at Link Composite’s previous facility, it continues to play a crucial part in the next phase of its composite panel manufacturing.

“We’ve just gone through a heavy transition from our previous manufacturing processes,” Robinson said. “We had to run two shifts on the six vacuum tables just to keep up with the demand in the old building. What we wanted and needed to do was put together a new manufacturing facility which is capable of producing higher volumes of product and the Combilift forklift is entrenched into those design plans.”

To support expansion plans and continued R&D investment, Link Composites recently moved into a new, modern premises on the Sunshine Coast, custom-designed to support a new project.

“Our new method of manufacturing fibreglass sandwich panels is using a hot melt adhesive,” Robinson explained. “Over the last 12 to 18 months, we’ve been designing a continuous semi-automated production line for that purpose. That whole project has been tied into a full relocation of the business over into the Coolum industrial estate. Our production line is capable of producing panel continuously at up to 6 lineal metres per minute.”

After an intense year and a half of design and research, the project is fully commissioned and operating. Link Composite’s team of managers, engineers and skilled operators all understand the core of the business is design, which prompts more innovation to push the envelope on traditional manufacturing methods.

“I sat down with our automation engineer and designer to draw up this production line,” Robinson said. “Once that was drawn up, we designed the entire site we are currently operating at, mapping out factory layout, inventory storage right down to production flow. By simulating workflow, we could implement lean workflow processes in place before we even had the keys to the building.”

Pallet racking was built from the floor to ceiling in height, so Link Composite needed the Combilift unit to lift up to 7.5 metres. This capability has resulted in three more bays worth of storage for inventory. The production line is 30 metres in length and is a continual process down to the end of the line where it shifts to move the composite panels onto a pallet. Once the pallet is loaded, the CB3000 picks up a pallet of panels and uses its manoeuvrability to traverse long loads out of the factory door into a neighbouring CNC shop.

“When you look at material handling I think it’s important to think of your operators,” he noted. “With the Combilift there’s next to zero actual physical handling of our product.”

Handling long loads like extended lengths of steel, timber or aluminium is an inherently dangerous process for operators. Not only do the right materials handling safety procedures help avoid serious injury, they also protect the product and reduce warehouse damage. A standard counterbalance forklift has been commonly used in these applications for years, but more companies are utilising a more manoeuvrable solution to safely move longer loads. Combilift is ahead of the pack and is helping companies like Link Composites facilitate an increase in output by providing that added layer of staff welfare and safety.

Robinson explained that the CB3000 is used in conjunction with a custom vacuum lifter for handling the composite panels.

“We use an attachment with vacuum pads on it that can pick up a panel and load it onto our CNC machine,” he said. “Again, it’s not our operators having to do this process. We rely on the Combilift and vacuum lifter as a duo to handle the workflow through the CNCs.”

Moving into the ‘virtual space’ is working for Link Composites: embracing the simulation of processes and Industry 4.0 to improve output continues to be a focus for Robinson going forward.

“The automation we are adopting is helped by the Combilift at the site being something we don’t ever need to worry about. It does the heavy lifting for us.”