Industrial Furniture Blog By RDM

Your work surface is the most important part of your industrial workbench. If you pick the wrong surface it may stain or wear prematurely. The wrong work surface may even lead to an accident. At RDM Industrial Products, we offer top quality work surfaces for all of our industrial workbenches with a variety of surfacing options. If needed, our sales team can help guide you through the process of selecting the right surface. Below are four quick examples of the workbench surfaces that fit various workplace demands.

Cleanroom: Stainless steel is not always the go-to material for the surface of a cleanroom workbench. The exact requirements are based on particular cleanroom standards. Stainless steel surfaces don’t scratch easily or accumulate foreign matter. They can also be quickly and easily cleaned. Electropolished stainless steel can be very pricey, but is necessary for clean rooms of class 10 or above. For cleanrooms of class 100 or less, there are many other more cost-effective options available, such as our standard plastic laminated top with added phenolic backing sheet. The laminated surface does not particulate, and the underside of the wood substrate is sealed with the phenolic backing sheet.

ESD Static Control: If you are working with static sensitive materials or equipment the top choice is clear: You need a static control table with an ESD protective laminated work surface. These surfaces work in concert with our properly grounded steel table frames, providing a dissipative path that leads harmful static away from your products or equipment. They also help to reduce electrical charge buildup.

Heavy Duty Manufacturing: Stainless steel tables provide a durable work surface for manufacturing, though an additional layer of rough material may be warranted for traction. Keep in mind that in these cases, you will need a table frame that will support your specific load / activity. We also offer solid plate steel tops for heavy-duty applications.

Semi-Service: In this case, the workbench actually serves as front of house furnishing where it’s not only visible to the public, but may even be used by customers. There are a number of “Do it yourself” businesses that need a proper mix of beauty and utility. In this case, the right material is really based on a combination of use and image. Stainless steel is great for kitchens, for instance, while wood (see our wood industrial workbenches) is a great all around material. Also, our plastic laminated tops are available in hundreds of standard colors and patterns.

Whatever your choice for a work surface, we have the industrial table solution you need, or we can manufacture one with the dimensions and materials you specify. Contact RDM to find out how we can make tables / workbenches that are a precise fit for your needs.

If you operate an up and coming manufacturing facility there will come a point where off the shelf industrial furniture solutions that used to be cost effective start to impose additional costs. These additional costs can result from things such as ergonomic-related accidents and the added expense of an inefficient production line. That’s when it’s time to upgrade to RDM’s industrial furniture solutions that are tailor made for your specific business needs. RDM is experienced in providing user-specific solutions, which may include a few option suggestions you may not have considered.

An excellent example is the ball transfer table. Ball transfer systems ease the movement of heavy materials across a production line. Even when upper body strength is a prerequisite in your shop, using raw strength to move products around usually results in delays due to fatigue, traffic jams on the production line, damaged materials, and/or even workplace injuries.

A full scale pneumatic ball transfer system is essentially a set of rolling spheres that can be raised and lowered as needed. There are systems available with only partial area ball transfer functionality as well. With this system, you can easily slide an item from your main roller line across the ball transfer station and freely rotate and adjust it until you need apply traction by lowering the balls. At this point, you can set the system to hold the item in place, do what you need to do, and then raise the balls to transfer the item again across the production line. Fixed ball transfer tops (most economical) are also available…

If you’re serious about a safe, efficient production process you owe it to yourself to investigate an RDM ball transfer system as an addition to any industrial workbench. At RDM, we have several models to choose from and we can also design / build custom ball transfer systems to fit your situation. Whether you have a small shop or a large factory, RDM Industrial Products is ready to build industrial furniture with the dimensions and characteristics you need. Contact RDM for your industrial furniture needs.