Agrostroj increases handling and storage capacity

Dipl.-Ing. Miloš Krenek, Engineering Director of Agrostroj Pelhrimov, a. s., Pelhrimov (Czech Republic), founded in 1896, presents a film about the use of combine harvesters and other harvesting machines. "These so-called in-house productions account for around ten percent of our turnover. The majority of the parts that we manufacture, 98 percent of which are exported, are components for international cooperation partners."

Increase material turnover

On a tour of the production halls, four automatic sheet metal storage systems catch the eye, all of which are from Stopa Anlagenbau GmbH, Achern-Gamshurst. Krenek stops in front of the Stopa Compact II, an automatic storage system of the latest generation. "We have invested in this fourth warehouse to expand our storage capacity and increase material handling from around 50,000 to 80,000 to 90,000 tons per year."

The manufacturer makes a significant contribution to performance with the concept of two storage and retrieval machines (SRMs) that run simultaneously in one aisle of the warehouse. A solution that also stands for greater flexibility and process reliability. The SRMs process their orders independently of each other. Both storage and retrieval machines can access almost all 2,606 storage locations in the Stopa Compact II, which is around 108 meters long, eleven meters high and 5.5 meters wide. The only exceptions are the outer 55 rack blocks arranged in two rows, which can only be reached by one of the SRMs at each end of the aisle. The high performance is also due to the speed of the stacker cranes, which achieve 150 meters per minute when moving, 20 meters when pulling and 23 meters when lifting.

Stopa makes a significant contribution to performance with the concept of two storage and retrieval machines that run simultaneously in one aisle of the warehouse. Image: Stopa Anlagenbau

Krenek unfolds a drawing showing the new warehouse and six laser cutting machines. "As the warehouse has to supply ten machines with metal sheets in the final expansion stage, Stopa suggested the use of two storage and retrieval machines. This solution almost doubled the performance of the system. Redundancy has also been created so that the connected machines can process their orders without downtime." This means that the warehouse fully meets the requirements of the operator, who will connect Trumpf high-end flatbed lasers with high axis speeds and positioning dynamics without exception and therefore wants to avoid unproductive waiting times.

More process reliability

The Stopa Compact II, a further development of the Stopa Compact, which has proven itself in many applications, offers even better space utilization and an even larger number of storage locations with the same storage volume compared to its predecessor. Agrostroj also benefits from greater process reliability and minimal wear. One of the reasons for this is that the metal sheets cannot slip due to the smoother running of the flat pallets. If the ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004-certified company, which employs over 2,000 people and produces on an area of 210,000 square meters, wants to increase its process reliability even further, it can set the speed and acceleration values individually or for specific materials.

Dipl.-Ing. Miloš Krenek, Engineering Director at Agrostroj, emphasizes that the automated warehouse also indirectly supplies the production facilities of the cooperation partners via the laser cutting systems. Image: Stopa Anlagenbau

Significant economic advantages result from the system's intelligent energy management. For example, regenerative energy generated when lowering the crossbeam can be used directly for the trolley motor using a DC link coupling. To save even more energy, the manufacturer uses a more compact crossbeam and two powerful, lightweight geared motors instead of a heavy drive motor, which reduces the overall weight by around half a ton. In addition, the Stopa Compact II enables more productive cycles per shift due to its significantly shorter weighing time. It also requires less maintenance, resulting in higher availability.

Turned to save space

On his tablet PC, Krenek shows products from companies that purchase sheet metal components from Agrostroj. "The automated warehouse also indirectly supplies the production facilities of our cooperation partners via our laser cutting systems. Because some of these customers want to be supplied on a just-in-time or just-in-sequence basis, their satisfaction depends not least on the performance of the warehouse."

One challenge was to automatically connect ten laser cutting systems, which require large floor areas including their handling equipment, to the two-shift system. As a result, the manufacturer presented a compact, space-saving solution in which the transport trolleys of the loading stations are equipped with turning devices. Krenek explains how it works on site. "As the sheets are rotated 90 degrees to the warehouse, we were able to arrange the machines closer together and - in relation to the length of the warehouse - save around four meters per laser cutting machine. With the standard set-up, there would not have been enough space for the desired ten machines, but only for six."

High availability

The real-time soft PLC integrated into an industrial PC of the easy-to-operate Stopa Compact II, which is equipped for three loading heights of up to 90, 275 and 1,015 millimetres, communicates with the TRUMPF TruTops Fab Storage module via an interface developed by Stopa. This software manages all stocks and controls the material flow in production.