In a high-volume glass fabrication plant, the bottleneck often isn't the CNC cutting table or the tempering furnace—it's the chaos in between. When hundreds of unique glass lites for different orders are mixed up, production stalls. The Harp Cart for Glass is not just storage; it is your shop's mobile sorting processor. It separates insulated glass (IG) components, protects soft Low-E coatings from scratches, and ensures that the right lite arrives at the assembly line at the exact moment it's needed. Stop treating your Work-In-Progress (WIP) like bulk storage and start organizing for speed.
Every custom glass fabricator knows the pain of the "sequencing gap." Your cutting table churns out optimized sheets to minimize waste, but the Insulating Glass (IG) line needs those sheets paired perfectly (e.g., one clear lite + one Low-E lite) to assemble a unit. If you are using standard A-frames or L-bucks for this stage, your operators are wasting valuable minutes shuffling through heavy glass stacks to find the matching piece.
The Harp Cart for Glass is engineered specifically to bridge the gap between cutting, tempering, and sealing. By utilizing a numbered slot system, operators can "file" glass lites immediately after cutting. This turns a chaotic pile of glass into a sequenced queue, ready for the washer or the IG line.
The numbered slot system allows for precise sequencing of glass lites, eliminating errors during the IG assembly process.
In the architectural glass industry, reject rates due to surface scratches are a major profit killer. High-performance soft-coat Low-E glass is notoriously fragile during handling. Traditional steel racks or wood crates often harbor debris that can abrade the coating.
Our Harp Carts are built with a "Zero-Metal-Contact" philosophy:
PVC-coated dividers ensure that high-value Low-E glass remains scratch-free during internal transport.
Not every order is a standard 4x8 sheet. Custom shower door manufacturers and architectural glaziers frequently handle tall, narrow panels or small transom windows. Standard bulk racks struggle to secure these odd sizes safely—small pieces slide out, and tall pieces wobble.
The Harp Cart for Glass features a full-length slotted base design. Whether you are storing a 2000mm x 2000mm sheet or a narrow side-lite, the evenly spaced dividers provide consistent vertical support. Furthermore, for safety during movement, the cart includes a foot-actuated lifting mechanism. This locks the cart to the floor during loading, preventing the "rolling away" accidents that lead to shattered glass and worker injury.
The foot-lock mechanism stabilizes the cart for safe loading and unloading of heavy glass sheets.
While A-Frames are the kings of shipping and bulk storage, they are inefficient for WIP sorting. Here is how they compare in a fabrication environment:
| Feature | Standard A-Frame Rack | Harp Cart for Glass |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Function | Bulk storage & Shipping finished packs | WIP Sorting, Tempering Queue, IG Assembly |
| Accessibility | First-In-Last-Out (Buried sheets are hard to reach) | Random Access (Pick any sheet from any slot) |
| Surface Contact | Sheet-to-Sheet contact (requires powder/paper) | No Sheet Contact (Air gap between every lite) |
| Glass Protection | Good for bulk, bad for individual sensitive coatings | Excellent for Low-E and soft-coat protection |
Shipping fully welded racks internationally is often cost-prohibitive due to the "shipping air" problem. Our Harp Carts utilize a bolt-together assembly structure. We flat-pack the heavy-duty Q235A carbon steel base, uprights, and grid sections. This allows us to load significantly more units into a container, lowering your landed cost per cart without sacrificing the structural rigidity required to hold 1,500kg of glass.
Knock-down design maximizes container loading efficiency, saving you freight costs.
1. What is the maximum glass thickness the Harp Cart slots can handle?
Standard configurations typically handle glass up to 12mm (1/2 inch) with ease. However, for specialized thick glass (like laminated shopfronts or ballistic glass), we can customize the slot width and reduce the number of wires to accommodate thickness up to 25mm (1 inch) or more.
2. Can I put hot glass fresh from the tempering furnace onto this cart?
While the steel frame is heat resistant, the standard PVC casings and Nylon rollers have temperature limits. For "hot glass" applications immediately exiting the tempering furnace, we recommend our specialized high-heat resistant covering options to prevent melting or marking.
3. How does the cart prevent glass from walking or rattling during transport?
The base slots are designed to be slightly wider than the glass but narrow enough to keep it upright. For thinner glass (like 3mm-6mm), we can provide narrower spacing. Additionally, the nylon rollers have a slight groove profile that helps center the lite and prevent lateral walking.
4. Is this cart suitable for storing finished Insulated Glass (IG) units?
Yes, but you must specify this requirement. IG units are significantly thicker than single lites (often 3/4" to 1" total thickness). We would manufacture the Harp Cart for Glass with wider spacing between the dividers to accommodate the full unit depth plus sealant curing space.
5. Do the casters mark epoxy facility floors?
No. We use heavy-duty Polyurethane or non-marking Nylon casters specifically chosen for glass fabrication environments. They are designed to carry high static loads without developing flat spots or leaving tracks on clean-room or shop floors.
