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The suction rows are activated one after the other, creating a wave when lifted. At the same time, air is blown between the sheets to compensate for the resulting negative pressure.
Laser automation enables rapid sheet metal changes on laser-cutting machines. This significantly increases the productive operating time of the machines.
Sheet metal vacuum lifting
When thin sheets are lifted from a stack, they can sometimes“ stick together.” To prevent this, Remmert uses various techniques in its laser automation.
“ It’ s like a pile of printer paper. If you only want to take one sheet from the stack, you must lift one corner first, ideally with a lot of dexterity. And yet sometimes the second sheet still comes along with it,” explained Fabian Gries, product manager at storage and automation specialist, Remmert, describing the challenges.
This problem is also recognised in sheet metal processing.
“ It looks as if the sheets are sticking together,” said Gries. However, this is not“ sticking” in the chemical sense, but rather a combination of several physical effects that together create the impression of adhesion.“ The thinner and lighter the sheets, the stronger these effects can be …..,” continued Gries.
Addressing the challenge
Remmert offers solutions for the automation of laser-cutting machines. In readiness for laser cutting, sheets are transferred from a warehouse to an automation line. A removal unit automatically picks up a sheet using vacuum suction cups and places it on the shuttle table.
“ If a second sheet is lifted and falls off during transportation, this can lead to serious injuries with manually operated sheet-metal lifters. With automated solutions, it can still cause damage to the machine. If the next sheet simply slips on the stack, it cannot be automatically picked up in the bestcase scenario. It is even worse if it is so crooked that it becomes jammed when it is put back into the sheet storage system. In either case, material damage occurs and the process comes to a standstill,” outlined Gries.
To avoid these issues, the LaserFLEX automation system from Remmert is equipped with various mechanisms.
“ The vacuum cups for holding the sheets are activated one after the other, creating a slight wave motion in the sheet.
Above: LaserFLEX picking unit. A special suction matrix and other mechanisms for separation of the sheets are in Remmert’ s LaserFLEX Automation system.
At the same time, we blow air between the sheets to compensate for the negative pressure during lifting. For steel sheets, we also recommend using an expanding magnet to fan-out the sheets. Finally, a pincer-like measurement device grips the sheet and compares the actual sheet thickness to the target value,” explained Gries.
Lifting thin sheets
Thin sheets with a thickness of less than 3mm are particularly affected, according to Fabian Gries.
“ Thin sheets are often processed from the coil. Nevertheless, we have customers in the heating-and-air-conditioning sector who use stacked sheets of less than 1mm thick,” he told ISMR.
Despite the mechanisms described, problems with separation were experienced with the tried-and-tested automation that Remmert used for sheets from 1-25.4mm.“ For this application, we modified the lifting unit with a special suction cup matrix to avoid deforming the thin material. We also developed a special device that initially lifts only one corner of the sheet. The principle is very similar to the sheet of paper that I mentioned earlier, only better,” confirmed Gries.
A key milestone
The storage and intralogistics solutions provider is now 80 years old. It began as a locksmith, plumbing and installation business. The family-run business is now an internationally active specialist in storage and handling systems with a production facility in Löhne, Westphalia, and a sales and service branch in Poland. Its product range includes automated storage systems for sheet metal and long goods. n
EDITOR’ S NOTE
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ISMR December 2025 / January 2026 | ismr. net | 55