DS-AUG-PG24+25_Layout 1 14/07/2026 12:41 Page 2


55thAnnivErSAry


springs & shocK aBsorBErs


fEaturE


cEss: Why gas springs toWEl folding machinEs


system for operation and maintenance is housed in a large, intuitive touch panel; and service personnel can access the machine remotely to perform analyses or adjustments. If repairs or maintenance do need to be carried


out on-site, all key areas of the folding machines are accessible through several doors and flaps. Each is protected by safety switches that stop operation when opened. The opened flaps also needed to be held in place and gently closed again after the work was completed. For this, the Texprofin team turned to ACE Stoßdämpfer. Ralf Küppers, one of ACE’s most experienced sales engineers, explained that they were able to find the perfect solution from the company’s extensive portfolio of components: GS-22-100 industrial gas springs from the push type family.


ding machine for industrial recision, and industrial gas doors for safe maintenance


cleaned laundry items can be sorted; and the operator can also perform camera checks and sort out identified items at the push of a button.


accessibility Servo Xtreme’s longitudinal and transverse fold settings are highly flexible, fast, and adjustable to the millimeter. For this, Texprofin’s engineers rely on servo motors as these offered significant advantages over pneumatic drives or AC motors. Servo motors with encoders enable the measurement of pulses, allowing the length and position of items to be determined precisely during the folding process. Thus, folding moments can be precisely defined with variable speed settings and different product types, making the machine extremely fast. Depending on the towel size and folding effort,


it is capable of processing up to around 1,400 towels per hour. “This makes it about twice as fast as machines that are otherwise comparable,” commented David Wollant of Texprofin. It was also important to the designers to


ensure the highest possible working comfort for the operating staff, especially when feeding in the goods. They therefore developed an input table that can be angled into four different positions and thus adjusted to the body height of the employee. Furthermore, the control


www.designsolutionsmag.co.uk


effortlessly opening, holding and closing flaps The industrial gas springs stem from the NEWTONLINE family which offers valve technology. These have a maximum extension force of 1,300N with a stroke of 100mm, while all types are self-contained systems, durable and filled with pressurised nitrogen gas. They are considered industry standard by many engineers and are ready-to-install and maintenance-free. Thanks to a wide range of available attachments, those can be easily fitted and are universally applicable. “These advantages enabled us to ensure


that all mechanical components and wear parts of Texprofin’s solutions are easily accessible,” explained Küppers. An additional challenge lay in the safety


switches that the customer had positioned on all flaps and doors. “With only one gas spring, slight tension in the flaps occurred, which meant that the safety switch there was not deactivated after the rear door was closed,” said Wollant. However, the integration of a second industrial gas spring on the other side of the flap solved the problem immediately, and each folding machine was ready for safe and, above all, fast daily operation. The springs have proved highly reliable in operation.


next stage: robots At Texprofin, the solution to the next challenge is already in development. Currently, in large-scale laundries, unsorted goods usually fall onto a conveyor belt that leads to the folding machine and its manual filling. This causes towels to either fall on the floor or they are not properly fed into the machine. In those cases, human


intervention is required. However, companies simply cannot find the people to feed folding machines eight hours a day in a row. That is where Texprofin’s new robotic


solution, Servo Vision, comes in. The company is currently working on a prototype that combines sophisticated image recognition with modern robotic end of arm tools to fully automate terrycloth handling for even faster and safer sorting.


industrial gas springs - supporting human power Industrial gas springs enable service flaps to be opened more easily, held securely, and closed with more comfort. For doors of commercial vehicles and planes, hoods and flaps on harvesting and other machines, even the pedals of cars or lockable medical equipment, industrial gas springs support human muscle power. What’s more, they do all that without energy coming from an external power source. They facilitate operation, increase convenience, and prevent injuries or damage to sensitive equipment. ACE industrial gas springs come as standard


push type components, offering body diameters from 8mm to 70mm and extension forces from 10N to 13,000N. They are also available as pull type equivalents when there is not enough space available for the former. Both product series are characterised by their long service life thanks to high-quality and robust materials such as steel or stainless steel. As a specialist in motion control, ACE also


offers the right mounting options for every application, as well as a wide range of suitable connections and fittings. Various modifications also make it possible to lock the gas springs, ensuring precise positioning at any point along the stroke.


ACE Stoßdämpfer www.acecontrols.co.uk/uk


texprofin www.texprofin.com


GS-22-100 industrial gas springs July/august 2026 DESiGn SOLUtiOnS 1971-2026 25


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