Anyone entering the company premises at Hagelauer Dewald in Pleidelsheim through the office wing has no idea what is hidden in the buildings next to and behind it. With the merger of the two companies Hagelauer and Dewald under the umbrella of the Lotter Group, the warehouse and production halls were bursting at the seams. The management then planned to use every free meter of the limited space at the Pleidelsheim site - whether on the side or on top - for a new building.

Now, a 20-metre-high building stands out between the administration and the new production halls, housing a high-bay warehouse and a sawing center. "Although the demolition and new construction took place virtually in the middle of ongoing operations, we were able to maintain production throughout the entire construction period," says Jörg Bayer proudly. He is one of two managing directors at Hagelauer Dewald and helped to shape and oversee the "growth" project.

From the outside, the new halls impress with their ingenious extension in all directions, the greenery and the photovoltaic cells on the roofs. There is also a sustainable concept under the concrete foundation for the high-bay warehouse: in addition to the floor slab, piles were driven into the ground. These bear the heavy loads and also serve as energy piles by using the ground geothermally. "We use this to heat and cool our office building," explains Jörg Bayer, adding: "We attach great importance to sustainability."

High-bay warehouse as the centerpiece

However, the "equipment" in the halls is particularly crucial for the steel trader's growth: this is why Hagelauer Dewald asked storage and sawing technology specialist Kasto Maschinenbau. The family-run company from Achern was already involved in the initial planning discussions in 2019 and provided the structural calculations for the roof and wall substructure as well as the structural calculation of the floor loads for the on-site foundation construction. "Kasto knows exactly what needs to be built and how in order to create the necessary stability for the enormous weights," says Jörg Bayer. Kasto demonstrated the required expertise back in the 1990s with the first machines for Hagelauer. Later, a warehouse and several Kastovariospeed C15 circular saws were added, which are still providing good service today.

The heart of the new building is the Unicompact 3.5 honeycomb storage system, which has a total storage capacity of almost 14,000 tons - 4,000 cassettes with a storage capacity of 3.5 tons each are possible in the final expansion. "We use this high-bay warehouse to stock materials and supply the surrounding stations," explains Jörg Bayer. The employees pick the orders there and carry out the processing using saw cuts. A special feature of the Unicompact storage system in Pleidelsheim is that it also supplies the adjacent fully automated Kastocenter Varioplus 2 sawing center with material fully automatically and unmanned via special saw cassettes and automatically movable longitudinal carriages. "Kasto was not only the first choice for the storage system, but also for the new saws," emphasizes the Managing Director. Kasto was thus able to automate the process from raw material storage and initial processing through to the structured provision of the processed material in load carriers in a complete solution.

Sawing center for fully automatic cutting

With the Kastocenter and the two fully automatically connected sawing machines, the steel trader can cut the materials flexibly and automatically in a short time. The Kastosort robot removes the sawn sections from the circular saw - a Kastovariospeed SC 18 - and feeds them to a deburring unit as required. It then sorts them into the pallets. The pallet circulation unit always provides the robot with a load carrier that exactly matches the material to be sorted. The system also continuously feeds and removes full and empty containers in the loading and unloading area. Another advantage: the robot automatically applies a barcode to the blanks. This means that all data is then available digitally. Even the production documents are already on the pallets.

The second machine, a Kastotec SC 4 band saw, is used by Hagelauer Dewald for large dimensions up to 260 millimetres in diameter. A panel conveyor positions the sections and pushes them to the desired storage position - either on a closed table surface or on pallets.

Customers demand flexibility and speed

"The Kasto sawing center is ideal for us because it fits perfectly with our position-driven business," explains Jörg Bayer. With 100,000 items and 2.5 million saw cuts per year, the steel trader requires the greatest possible flexibility and speed. He leaves no doubt that the investment in the Kastocenter Varioplus 2 has paid off in every respect: "Customers get exactly the material they need from us. On the one hand, this saves storage space, and on the other, their well-paid specialists no longer have to deal with storage and sawing activities," summarizes Bayer.

"Our customers want steel in bags," jokes the Managing Director. And indeed, machine builders and other steel processors mainly order small quantities from Hagelauer Dewald. "Over 60 percent of all items leave our hall in a single pallet or plastic crate," he adds. The new sawing center can easily process many different items completely automatically and without changeover or dwell times. Jörg Bayer sums up: "This rapid availability is a huge step forward for us. What the customer orders today will be delivered tomorrow - even if it's only in small quantities."

http://www.kasto.com hagelauer-dewald.de