Long rods find space in the tower

Whether in cars and motorcycles, in machine tools or in presses and rollers for the production of cast parts: In numerous applications, hydraulic cylinders ensure that what needs to move, moves. Fluid-driven linear motors are also the specialty of AHP Merkle GmbH: the family-run company based in Gottenheim in southern Baden has been producing high-quality solutions for customers from various industries, such as tooling, moulds and mechanical engineering, aluminium die casting and the automotive industry, for more than 40 years. The product range includes standard, block and punching cylinders, slide and core pull units, clamping elements and rotary drives. AHP Merkle employs almost 150 people at its headquarters, plus two Chinese branches in Hong Kong and Shenzhen and around 20 foreign representatives in Europe, America and Asia.

Space needed for raw material with a length of three meters

At the company headquarters in Gottenheim, newly built in 2010, everything is geared towards a lean and efficient production process. All production steps take place in-house and distances are short. "In addition to quality and selection, our customers particularly appreciate the fast delivery times," explains Paul Gutmann, Operations Manager at AHP Merkle. "With such a wide range of products, this requires flexible and efficient production and logistics." The company keeps selected cylinders in stock at all times. If required, these can be delivered to customers all over the world within a few days. AHP manufactures all other solutions to order, based on a modular system. The specialist obtains the raw material for the hydraulic cylinders as bar stock, usually in lengths of three meters. Various steels and aluminum are the most common materials.

94 storage spaces with a height of 18 meters

The raw material is initially stored in a Unitower tower storage system.

"In order to be able to react quickly to incoming orders, it is an advantage for us to have as many sizes and materials as possible in stock," explains Gutmann. "After all, the lead time for procuring materials is up to six months." A Unitower tower storage system from sawing and storage technology specialist Kasto was therefore integrated into the building during the construction of the new company headquarters. With 94 storage locations and a height of 18 meters, it offers a compact and space-saving solution for storing long metal goods. Cassettes with a load capacity of three tons each serve as load carriers, which are filled manually or by overhead crane at a storage station at the front of the tower.

The entire bearing does not have to be moved, only the cassette

"The Unitower system not only makes optimum use of the available space, it is also extremely efficient," explains Holger Dehmelt, salesman at Kasto. The load carriers are handled by a storage and retrieval machine with load traverse. "Compared to paternoster systems, for example, this has the advantage that only the respective cassette needs to be moved, rather than the entire warehouse. This ensures fast access times and saves energy."

Those responsible at AHP Merkle are also delighted with the new warehouse. "When we decided to expand our capacities last year, we built a second, identical tower," says Operations Manager Gutmann. Since then, AHP has twice the number of storage locations and can stock an even wider range of materials.

The cassettes are transported from the warehouse to the sawmill via two roller conveyors. Kasto has combined the system with a KASTOsort automatic sorting system with two space-saving robots so that no AHP employee has to remove the sawn parts by hand afterwards. These can not only remove the sawn sections and stack them on pallets or containers, but also deburr them: "This makes our work easier and saves a lot of time," reports Paul Gutmann.

Removing, deburring, sorting - the robot does it all

After the sawing process, the first of the two robots removes the section from the machine using one of a total of eleven vacuum grippers and transfers it to a clamping device. This is where the second robot takes over. This has a pneumatically pre-tensioned milling head that removes all burrs evenly. While the first workpiece is still being processed, the robot can already remove a second one from the saw and clamp it. This shortens the cycle times.

The sections are then placed in a container. Here, too, Kasto technology proves to be flexible: "The robot can stack the parts in different containers according to type as well as put them together according to order," emphasizes production foreman Sebastian Schweizer. The sawing sections are transported to the next production station by pallet truck. "There is also already an interface to an automated guided vehicle system," adds Paul Gutmann. "That could be one of our next investments." Both are delighted with the collaboration with Kasto: "Planning, installation and commissioning went completely smoothly," recalls Gutmann. The Kasto experts can connect directly to the system from Achern via remote maintenance and optimize it. For every question, a specialist is just a phone call away - and on site in the shortest possible time if required. "You could hardly wish for better service," praises Schweizer.

Stephanie Riegel-Stolzer

Contact:

AHP Merkle GmbH 79288 Gottenheim Tel: 0 76 65/ 42 08-0 E-Mail:

Kasto Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. KG 77855 Achern-Gamshurst Tel.: 0 78 41/ 61-0 E-Mail:[email protected] www.kasto.com