With the inline control, the raising and lowering of the load is carried out intuitively through the action of the control handle. The operator controls all the movement with one hand. In effect, the handle is 100 per cent sensitive, and the speed of motion is thus proportionate to the effort applied by the operator. The load can be positioned effectively and directly onto the component with an effort equivalent to 5 per cent of its own mass.

If no pressure is applied to the control handle, the load remains balanced no matter where the load balancer is located on its translation area. With a simple pneumatic sensor on the gripper, two different loads can be balanced very easily: the empty gripper or the gripper with the component to be handled. Furthermore, the inline control adapts to a wide range of loads, starting at around 80 per cent of a load balancer's capacity.

Installation of the inline control is particularly easy because it works completely by pneumatics. The majority of parts (control box, control cable, control handle, grippers, etc ) are standard Ingersoll Rand products. Being 100 per cent pneumatic also eases maintenance operations and results in greater reliability in cases of intensive use.

Ingersoll Rand's teams offer an inline control model that is best suited to where it will be used according to the following criteria: rails, brackets, manipulator arms, cycle time, vertical running, horizontal movement, number of loads and their weight, type of gripper and components, and total height availability.

A specific, customised gripper can also be developed on demand.