Now delivered in as little as 6 weeks – matching many heavy industry gearbox lead timesSEW‑EURODRIVE, now offers external oil cooling and supply systems for heavy industry gearing with lead times as short as six weeks. Built and configured at SEW-EURODRIVE Heavy Industry Gearing (HIG) in Wellford, South Carolina, these systems are engineered to support today’s torque-dense gearboxes—where thermal limitations often determine gearbox size.Previously available only through longer-lead global channels, these systems are now stocked and assembled in the U.S., eliminating delivery bottlenecks.Never Lose Your Cool: Precision Cooling for Critical ApplicationsAs HIG drive systems grow more compact and power-dense, thermal management becomes essential. SEW‑EURODRIVE’s external lubrication systems address that challenge, with configurations that ensure oil is delivered, circulated, and cooled exactly as your application demands.Available types include: Oil-to-air cooling systems (OAP1) Oil-to-water cooling systems (OWP1) Pressure lubrication systems without cooling (ONP1)Each is sized using SEW‑EURODRIVE’s thermal validation tools and can be gearbox-mounted or skidmounted for flexibility in layout and maintenance access.What’s New Assembled in the U.S., reducing delivery time from 14–20 weeks to as little as 6 weeks Standard options in stock and ready to configure Designed to support thicker startup oil viscosities up to 5,000 cStBuilt for Your ApplicationSEW‑EURODRIVE’s Oil Cooling and Supply Systems can be tailored to your specific requirements and include modular, sensor-ready features to support system reliability and monitoring.Standard stocked options include: Duplex oil filters (25μm) — allows filter change during operation • Electro-optical contamination pop-up indicator Oil manometer gauge Oil thermometer gauge Oil pressure switch • Oil temperature switch — all to monitor the gearbox oil sump in real time“With local assembly and standard stocked components, we can now deliver complete external thermal management solutions in six weeks—helping our customers get their HIG systems up and running faster and more reliably.” — Austin Burdette, Product Manager, SEW‑EURODRIVE HIG USAGet StartedContact your SEW‑EURODRIVE Heavy Industry Gearing representative to discuss your application needs or request a quote.www.seweurodrive.comAbout SEW-EURODRIVEFounded in 1931 in Bruchsal, Germany, SEW-EURODRIVE is a global leader in Industrial Automation, with operations in over 50 countries, 17 manufacturing plants, 92 assembly facilities, and more than 21,000 employees. The company holds over 1,000 patents, continuously driving technological advancements in gearmotors, frequency inverters, servo drives, and Industry 4.0 solutions.SEW-EURODRIVE provides engineered solutions in countless industries, including automotive, food & beverage, pharmaceuticals, mining, steel, logistics, energy, and more, providing customized automation solutions that enhance efficiency, productivity, and sustainability. Despite its global reach, SEWEURODRIVE remains family-owned, ensuring long-term vision, strong values, and a commitment to excellence.SEW-EURODRIVE. Driving the World™ContactSEW-EURODRIVE, Inc.Michelle NAU937-307-1901MNau@seweurodrive.com—Joe TETZEL864-661-1236JTetzel@seweurodrive.com

The Season of StrainFrom warehousing to manufacturing to hospitals, workers experience heightened strain when completing tasks, particularly those involving pushing and pulling. Whether maneuvering a material handling cart or a hospital bed, employees’ backs endure stress from high exertion forces. While this is a year-round challenge, the period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s amplifies the risks.Seasonal pressures stem from worsening weather conditions and increased workloads amongst many other factors that lead 2 in 5 companies to see a rise in injuries during the holiday season (OHS Canada, 2024). For example, healthcare workers often operate with a skeleton crew during the holidays, yet patient numbers and thus the demand for patient engagement spikes (Continuing Care Safety Association, 2022). In warehousing and manufacturing, consumer spending surges drive a demand for faster production and delivery. The pressure to ensure customers receive their products on time is intensified by potential postal delays and logistical challenges.From the carts we push to the beds we pull; the holiday season heightens the strain workers face. Effective communication becomes even more essential in these fast-paced, noisy environments. Misunderstandings Misunderstandings between “no” and “go” in a warehouse or hospital can lead to critical mistakes. Addressing push/pull injury risks, improving operational efficiency, and ensuring clear communication are key to overcoming holiday challenges. The right ergonomic caster can play a significant role in mitigating these issues.Are Your Casters Ready to Handle the Holidays?Here are some ways ergonomic casters help reduce holiday-season hazards:Push/Pull Forces When operators exert significant strength to move a cart, they face a primary ergonomic risk factor: force. Excessive push forces can lead to acute injuries, such as muscle strains, and chronic injuries that develop over time, particularly in the lower back. Ergonomic casters help reduce push/pull forces, including the initial force, the sustained force, and the swiveling force—which occurs when the wheels are perpendicular to travel, often the worst-case scenario. These reductions are achieved through thoughtful design elements and carefully chosen wheel materials integrated into ergonomic casters. Overall Rig Design Components like precision ball bearings and Kingpinless casters promote better ergonomics by decreasing push/pull forces, providing maintenance-free use, and eliminating single points of failure to enhance durability. Some Kingpinless casters’ permit modular designs which allows for adjustments to meet increased seasonal demands. Additional wheels can be added to improve maneuverability and push/pull performance, ensuring operations stay safe and efficient under holiday pressure.Caster Offset Caster offset refers to the distance between the swivel head’s center and the wheel axle. Without an offset, loaded wheels experience direct compression, increasing the force required to move the cart. By introducing a caster offset, the wheel pivots more easily, reducing push/pull forces. However, offset designs must be carefully engineered. Excessive offset can create tripping hazards as the caster extends beyond the cart’s footprint. Additionally, insufficient reinforcement of the offset can lead to deformation under heavy loads. Conversely, over-reinforcing the caster can increase its weight, creating new handling challenges. So, ensure the offset meets the requirements of the task, the environment, and the cart operator.Wheel Material Wheel material significantly influences push/pull forces and other ergonomic considerations. Very hard wheels excel in clean environments with hard flooring, such as concrete, due to their low coefficient of friction. However, in less controlled environments like shop floors, their push/pull performance may decline. Softer, resilient materials are ideal for environments with debris and uneven flooring, where harder materials often fail. The lower durometer wheel can absorb the impact of these environmental characteristics. Loud environments, whether in hospitals or distribution centers, can compromise safety and efficiency. Ergonomic casters with noise-reducing materials absorb shocks and reduce noise, addressing common secondary ergonomic risk factors while not being impeded push/pull performance. These materials promote safer, more efficient workplaces, ensuring smoother operations during the busiest time of year, particularly when housekeeping is less frequent.Not all wheel materials perform equally across facility environments. While improving push/pull performance is critical, it’s also essential to account for other ergonomic and operational risks when selecting the right wheel material.Wrapping It UpThe holiday season brings heightened demands and increased risks for workers across industries. Ergonomic casters can significantly reduce these risks by lowering push/pull forces, improving cart maneuverability, and enhancing communication through noise reduction. Selecting the right wheel material is critical to optimizing caster performance. Investing in ergonomic caster solutions ensures that your workforce remains safe, productive, and ready to handle the holiday rush.

Huhtamaki is a global provider of sustainable food packaging solutions. Its two facilities in New Vienna, Ohio, specialize in making plastic Chinet tableware and ice cream lids. Huhtamaki’s manufacturing process relies on large plastic injection molding presses. NOMAD® XW freestanding cranes solved the problem and eliminated the need for outside contractors, putting Huhtamaki back in control of its processes. To date, EMH has installed four low headroom, high capacity (20-25 ton) NOMAD freestanding crane systems in each of Huhtamaki’s four main production rooms.

To complement a new educational video, thought leaders representing the Protective Guarding Manufacturers Association (ProGMA), an MHI product group, discuss the importance of protecting personnel, equipment, and inventory in industrial facilities.ProGMA has recently launched the second in a series of videos about the importance of protective guarding products in the material handling industry. The video titled “Proper Safeguarding for Elevated Work Platforms” followed the inaugural, educational video titled, “Essential Safety Barriers for Automated / Robotic Workcells”. (http://www.mhi.org/progma/videos)Here, representatives of member companies expand on the themes explored within the latest video in the group’s first blog.Before we start, says Arlin Keck, corporate research and development engineer at Steel King (a manufacturer of pallet racks, mezzanines and guardrails), it’s important to clarify what we mean by “mezzanine” in this context. “The technical term for what my company and other members make is work platforms. Mezzanine was an old term for these systems; however, the word mezzanine had to be dropped because mezzanine, as defined in the building codes, refers to a specified type of floor within a building structure and carries with it added requirements for fire safety, egress, parking, and so on,” Keck explains.A typical work platform is design to support the site-specific load that will be placed on the floor, be it palletized loads, pallet jacks, foot traffic, work equipment, filing cabinets, racking or shelving units, to name just a few possibilities.Keck says that the main purpose of an elevated work platform is to add additional floor space into a building or room by taking advantage of surplus ceiling clearance that may exist in a warehouse or manufacturing facility. Aaron Conway, president at Mezzanine Safeti-Gates Inc. (a manufacturer of safety gates to secure the ledges of pallet drop areas on mezzanines and rack picking systems), says, “A company that has utilized all of its ground space can build upward. An elevated platform allows one to use the space for workflow or to store product.”As Hue Schlegel, director of marketing at Wildeck Inc. (a manufacturer of mezzanines and work platforms), puts it, “Move up, not out.” He adds, “Depending on the available height in a building, platforms can be one, two, or three levels high, with the most common height being 10 ft. top-of-deck and supporting a floor load of 125 lbs. per square foot. Their length and width are only limited by facility size.” Importantly, he explains, they cannot occupy more than two thirds of a fire-rated area within a building.Keck says work platforms are also used to create catwalks between separated platforms, and to serve as sortation and conveyance areas for mechanized systems. Conway agrees, adding, “Companies that supply elevated work platforms can fabricate them in virtually any configuration. They can be designed to accommodate specific workflow operations or to fit with existing structures in the building.”Industrial buildings are getting bigger and elevated work platforms are scaling up with them. Say, 50 years ago, facilities were much smaller and ceilings lower so there were fewer requirements for elevated platforms. Further, the equipment to load at such heights didn’t exist. Now, the capability of equipment is greater and taller structures are being utilized as a result. Within them, work and storage takes place on multiple levels.These multi-level work platforms present a danger of personnel and objects falling from height.As the latest video warns, the pallet drop area of elevated work platforms can lead to accidents if the ledge is open without adequate guarding. Falls to lower levels cost employers $5 billion annually in compensation claims in the U.S. alone. OSHA reports that it costs on average 16 lost working days per injured employee.Conway says, “Falling from an elevated level, whether it be people or products, is a serious danger and both should be addressed proactively, securing the situation before an incident occurs.” Schlegel adds, “The worst case, of course, is death; while the best scenario is that a worker survives a fall from the typical mezzanine height of 10 ft. sustaining only broken bones, fractures, and other injuries from hitting the concrete floor below. It is a serious matter not to be taken lightly.”Traditional railing or guarding systems are effective at preventing falls from height as long as they include a kick plate that is installed in conjunction with ANSI MH 28.3-2009. Adding netting or expanded metal and safety products to traditional railing systems provides added protection by capturing small objects that might otherwise fall into the work area below.OSHA Standard 1926.502, meanwhile, requires paneling or screening where tools, equipment, or materials are piled higher than the top edge of a toe-board or kick plate. ProGMA members also manufacture both netting and wire mesh panels that comply with that standard.However, David Brentz, chairman of ProGMA and vice president of member company Industrial Netting (a manufacturer of plastic netting), says, “That’s only a minimum requirement; added protection is financially prudent. The cost to install netting or wire screens around the perimeter of an elevated work platform pales in comparison to the cost of a single lost time accident. ProGMA members offer several simple, cost effective solutions to protect employees below loose objects that may fall or be kicked off work platforms.”Conway says, “In the past, properly guarding a pallet drop area or installing netting or wire was something that would be retrofitted, either after an incident occurred or after someone pointed out the issue. Designing proper safety guarding for the structure at the time of purchase makes for a much better fit; when retrofitting, there is often insufficient room for proper guarding and concessions have to be made. But, it is important to note that even if proper guarding wasn’t designed with the structure, it still should be installed. There are companies in the ProGMA that can customize solutions to fit these areas.”He continues, “Don’t confuse luck with judgment. If I visit a facility that was built, say, 20 years ago, I’m sure to find open pallet drop areas or insufficient guardrails. Just because these areas have been around for a while isn’t a reason not to properly secure them. I’ve heard the line, ‘Well, we’ve been doing it this way for 20 years and nobody has gotten hurt’. To that I say, ‘You’ve been lucky!’”Schlegel says, “The biggest safety risk is when a forklift access gate on mezzanine is left open creating a fall hazard for someone off-loading a pallet at the upper level. There are many products, provided by ProGMA members, that prevent the gate from being left open or that keep the operator at a safe distance, which should always be installed.”ANSI says, “Any gate that provides an access opening through the guards for the purpose of loading and unloading material onto a work platform shall be designed such that the elevated surface is protected by guards at all times. Gates that swing open, slide open, or lift up, leaving an unprotected opening in the guarding are not acceptable.”Dual gate systems such as a rolling gate ensure that the operator is separated from the ledge as well as the load. A pivoting gate ensures the operator is never exposed to the ledge and does not require him or her to walk near an open ledge to operate the gate.Unfortunately, sometimes it can take an incident and a facility to be shut down during an investigation for companies to understand the serious financial consequences of a workplace injury. There are many other companies that understand the risks and proactively secure their work areas. These diligent companies end up ahead in the long run:1. They typically get better solutions because they had the time to design them correctly;2. They get a better price because they can take their time and research the solutions;3. Safety solutions are in place before they need them.Conway concludes, “The large majority of people don’t want to get hurt and are not acting recklessly on the job. Typically, they are performing a repetitive operation, and in their process miss a step or push something too far and someone gets hurt. Proper guarding should be in place to prevent injury if this happens.”About ProGMAThe Protective Guarding Manufacturers Association (ProGMA) members are the industry’s leading suppliers of fixed protective guarding products designed to protect personnel, equipment, and inventory in industrial facilities. Member companies meet regularly to review, discuss, and revise the standards for design and performance of protective guarding products used in the material handling industry. ProGMA member companies are committed to the development, maintenance, and publishing of industry standard specifications for these systems. Visit the website at http://www.mhi.org/ProGMAAbout MHIMHI is an international trade association that has represented the material handling, logistics and supply chain industry since 1945. MHI members include material handling and logistics equipment and systems manufacturers, integrators, consultants, publishers and third-party logistics providers. MHI offers education, networking and solution sourcing for their members, their customers and the industry as a whole through programming and events. The association sponsors the ProMat and MODEX expos to showcase the products and services of its member companies and to educate manufacturing and supply chain professionals. http://www.mhi.orgContactAnupam Berry Boseabose@mhi.org704-676-1190