02 Inside, at the front
02 Inside, at the front of the warehouse there are seven other stations with lateral transport carriages for removing and returning material 03 An employee enters the material data at an operating panel with a graphical interface when the material is stored LOGISTICS The warehouse runs perfectly and has given us significant gains in speed, efficiency, transparency and safety. Jörg Neu, managing director of Gebr. Blum GmbH erating panel when the material is stored, and only once,” explains Kasto project manager Markus Füller. “The intuitive graphical interface makes this very easy.” Inside, at the front of the warehouse there are seven other stations with lateral transport carriages for removing and returning material. There are also two metalworking machines. The older of the two, a laser-cutting machine made by Trumpf, was already in use at the previous location and is fed by a manually operated overhead crane. However, when new material is needed, employees can request it just by pressing a button. The pallet arrives automatically in a matter of seconds. A newly purchased stamping and laser cutting machine, which can run fully unattended, is also connected to the storage system. Vacuum suction units remove sheets that have been taken from storage and convey them automatically to the facility. “That saves time, reduces the burden on our workers and protects them from injury,” says Neu. Parts that have been cut by the machine are then automatically put back onto a system pallet. Warehouse software is connected to the ERP system and machine controller The Uniline storage system is specially designed for effective delivery of material to metalworking machines. The flexible Kastologic software can connect the machines to the system regardless of manufacturer. The storage facility makes optimum use of the available room height. Thanks to its slim design and the small approach dimensions of the SRM, it takes up very little space. The SRM is equipped with extremely dynamic drives for fast, direct access to the material. The modular design of the storage system allows it to be perfectly adapted to the user’s needs. For example, several different types of carriage are available for storage and retrieval, and there are additional conveyor and order-picking units. “We’ve also designed our software to integrate our solutions into a uniform material flow,” says Füller. Kasto has also connected the warehouse to Blum’s Abas- ERP system and to the control unit of the stamping and laser cutting machine to ensure easy use and permit unmanned operation. The warehouse went into operation in April 2017. The employees of Gebr. Blum were thoroughly trained by Kasto’s experts to make them familiar with the new system. Since then, the system has run without any problems. “If there were ever a malfunction, we could go online and quickly rectify it by means of remote maintenance,” explains Füller. Managing director Jörg Neu is fully satisfied: “Kasto did a great job here – the warehouse runs perfectly and has given us significant gains in speed, efficiency, transparency and safety.” At present the company is in two-shift operation. When the combined stamping and laser cutting machine is connected, it will be able to run after working hours without staffing. Capacity for future growth About 250 of the 700 storage compartments at Gebr. Blum are currently filled, so plenty of space is still available. There are two reasons for this, Neu explains: “First, we’re also planning to store finished parts here, with different dimensions. The Uniline storage system makes this possible thanks to its dynamic shelf height management.” The other reason is that the company is looking forward to strong growth and has already created the necessary capacity. “After all, we don’t want to move again very soon,” says the managing director with a smile. Photographs: Kasto www.kasto.com 40 WORLD OF INDUSTRIES 2018
Beumer Group expands the fillpac FFS filling machine product family As a system supplier, Beumer Group expanded the fillpac FFS form fill seal system product family in order to offer even more tailored solutions for specific applications. Customers can now get the filling system for high-capacities of up to 2,600 bags per hour and for low throughputs starting from 1,800 per hour, used for example in the fertiliser industry. Depending on the requirements the suitable machine performance class can be selected from the extended product range. With its fillpac FFS, the system supplier presents itself as singlesource provider for filling, palletising and packaging technologies. This machine forms a ready-made PE tubular film into a bag and fills it with engineering plastics like PE, PP, PA or PS granules. Reliable and gentle filling is also possible for salts or fertilisers. The pellets are then weighed before the filling process. For this, the Beumer fillpac FSS is equipped with an electronic calibration-capable weighing unit. Then the system seals the bags with a weight of up to 25 kg. www.beumergroup.com Ecomal increases the use of Picavi smart glasses The electronics wholesaler, Ecomal Europe GmbH, will be using more Picavi smart glasses at its European central warehouse from the third quarter of 2018 onwards. This is because the company is extending the field of activities used by the pick-by-vision solution in the past at its logistics centre in Kirchzarten. Up to now, the warehouse specialists have used ten pairs of the glasses for picking outgoing goods – now the glasses will be deployed for incoming goods too. Ecomal is hoping to achieve a significant reduction in the error rate when putting items into storage by using the Picavi products in this area. Spot on under extreme conditions. Under extremes of heat or ice, in extremely wet, salty or dusty conditions, or just for an extremely tight fit, there is still a need to be spot on. STAHL CraneSystems engineers and technicians develop the right solution for tricky situations where unusual requirements emerge.Their long experience and detailed know-how, coupled with a high degree of vertical integration and seamless quality management, enable them to rise to extreme challenges. www.picavi.com
