The manufacturer of scaffolding systems is planning the construction of a new production line in Güglingen-Cleebronn and commissioned Demag to install the automated crane and conveyor technology as well as the safety equipment. The installation of five automated process cranes will ensure the storage of pipes, their commissioning and timely provision in a largely automated material flow for the production of components for scaffolding. The throughput of the new plant is designed for an output of 120,000 tons per year and 25 tons per hour.

New building with automated material flow

In Güglingen-Cleebronn, Layher is planning to build an independent plant for the production and hot-dip galvanizing of components for its Allround scaffolding system. The factory area of "Plant 3" is approximately eleven hectares, of which around five hectares are covered production and storage areas. The production cycle for the entire site will start there from 2023: galvanizing of the scaffolding elements and, depending on the component, also hot forming, ledger welding, stick welding and assembly.

Pipe bundles are delivered from various production plants and deposited in Demag stacking racks at transfer stations to the incoming goods warehouse. After receipt by the Demag Warehouse Management System (WMS) and registration in interaction with the customer's SAP Hana system, two Demag crane installations take over the automated material transport. The cranes with a load capacity of 8 tons and a track gauge of 25 m store the stacked racks until they are called up by the production department. The WMS calculates the allocation of the storage location for the pipe bundles, which vary in length and wall thickness, according to stored rules.

The crane systems also take care of automated retrieval. For this purpose, the pipe bundles are set down on one of three conveyor lines, which transport them to the designated production area.

In the future, three additional automatic cranes with track center dimensions of 11 m and a load capacity of 8 t will work here in the areas of beam welding / sawing and hot forming. These process cranes will transport the individual coils to the intermediate production warehouse upstream of production, or alternatively they will feed the individual machines directly.

Control through warehouse management system

In addition to the delivery data from the supplying trucks, the Demag WMS takes into account and processes production planning and data from the Layher quality assurance system. In the production area, pipe bundles are temporarily stored on a platform above the processing machines with a pre-planning of one production day. This intermediate storage area enables fast material provision with a high degree of flexibility. This intermediate storage area and the transports between the areas are also controlled by the Demag WMS.

The goods movements take place in sequences, initially from the delivery to one of the two incoming goods warehouses, from the incoming goods warehouse to the intermediate production warehouse and from the intermediate production warehouse to the processing machines. The sequence of transports is calculated and automatically carried out by the Demag WMS using the requirements determined by the customer's pre-production planning system. The retrieval of the requested pipe bundles and the handling are carried out automatically by the cranes and the conveyor system according to the retrieval orders specified in the Demag WMS. The automatic crane selected by the WMS in the incoming goods warehouse places the corresponding rack on transfer stations of the conveyor lines supplied by Demag for production.

The Demag WMS organizes the retrievals according to the FIFO principle and can, for example, carry out stock transfers when capacity is low in order to create bundle stacks of the same type. Stock transfers between the two bays are also possible.

Demag supplies complete system solution

It is not unusual that Demag will supply the two automatic cranes for this project. After all, the company is one of the world's leading manufacturers of automated cranes and has extensive experience in the handling of long loads. This also includes the implementation of the Demag Warehouse Management System (WMS). This software for internal material flow has also proven itself worldwide in various applications for process cranes, including the storage of steel and paper rolls as well as press tools in the automotive industry.

What is less usual, however, is that Demag not only plans and installs cranes here, but also supplies a complete system solution for the floor-bound and floor-free material flow - including the long goods storage system. Layher is thus also implementing its own strategy as a leading manufacturer of system scaffolding in material flow planning. Dr. Thomas Bönker, Senior Vice President Process Cranes: "We are delighted to have won this very challenging order. The complexity results not only from the complete scope of delivery and planning, but also from the fact that many special features had to be taken into account in the planning, which we developed together with our customer Layher. Thanks to this partnership, which was initiated at an early stage, we were able to identify and exploit significant optimization potential in advance."

The scope of supply also includes comprehensive safety equipment for access control in the intersection areas of cranes and the processing machines. The process at the bundle loading magazines in the production area in particular had to be carefully planned for this. To provide a safe working environment, Demag installed comprehensive safety equipment and automatically moving safety devices between the machines and the storage area.