TPT September 2018

AR T I C L E

Kasto Maschinenbau GmbH & Co KG

The compact storage system consists of a double tower. With its height of 8.5m and small footprint it has space for almost 80 pallets, each of which can hold sheets measuring up to 3,000 x 1,500mm. A stacker crane with a central crossbeam handles the load carriers. In this way it is not necessary to move the entire stock, but only the pallet in question. This ensures fast access times, and the high-efficiency lifting gear offers significant energy savings. The Unitower is connected to the existing Uniline storage system for maximum flexibility. A bridge with a longitudinal carriage riding on a rail connects the two systems at the top. “In this way we can move pallets automatically from one area of the storage facility to another without losing valuable space down below,” explained Mr van den Hurk. Connecting machines An additional laser cutting machine is also connected to the Unitower system. Loading and unloading are performed by a fully automatic handling system from a third-party supplier. Using various grippers it can handle whole sheets as well as cut parts and remnants. “This increases our productivity and gives us greater flexibility,” said Mr Verschuuren. A special advantage of the Kasto solution is that it can easily be integrated into the metalworking machinery of other manufacturers. “Thus we are not dependent on a single manufacturer, as we would be with many other systems,” explained Mr Verschuuren. “We can use the machines that are most suitable for the given requirements.” Kasto installed the tower storage system in just a few weeks without interrupting operations. “We didn’t want the work to cause delays in deliveries – and we succeeded,” said Mr Verschuuren. Both the new and the existing system are controlled by Kasto’s warehouse management system, KASTOlogic. “We programmed the software to treat the two areas as a single connected storage system,” explained team leader

Kasto installed two manipulators at the output stations of the Uniline storage system. They load and unload the laser cutting machines fully automatically

Cooperation to develop fresh designs “Back when we had to invest in a new warehouse, our choice quickly fell on Kasto,” recalled Mr Verschuuren. “Other manufacturers offered us standard solutions that were unsatisfactory, whereas Kasto worked with us right from the planning phase to develop new ideas for the design. They told us very clearly what would work and what would not.” For example, it was possible to seamlessly connect two flatbed laser cutting machines in a continuous material flow. For this purpose Kasto installed two manipulators at the output stations of the Uniline storage system. Using vacuum suction units the manipulators lift sheets from storage, place them on the shuttle tables and then remove the finished parts and remnants. “The Kasto solution permits fast, efficient and gentle handling of our various materials,” explained Ronnie van den Hurk, the other managing director at De Cromvoirtse. “The stacker crane is equipped with two pallet stations in order to shorten the cycle times. In this way we avoid empty runs. For each storage operation there is always a retrieval operation happening at the same time.” With its Uniline facility De Cromvoirtse has substantially increased the capacity of its machines and shortened the throughput times.

Additional tower storage system for greater capacity

However, owing to the company’s booming online business and growing numbers of orders, even this system reached its limits after a few years. In 2016, the steel wholesaler therefore again asked Kasto how to increase the performance of its storage facility. “Our first thought was to add a second stacker crane to the existing Uniline system,” said Klaus Seifermann, head of the sales team. “But this reconfiguration would have interfered with our operations and was therefore out of the question.” So Kasto worked out an alternative solution. It installed a separate Unitower B tower storage system next to the existing in-line storage system, in this way providing additional capacity.

When needed, sheets are provided automatically by the KASTOlogic warehouse management software

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SEPTEMBER 2018