All good things come in threes

Zerhusen Kartonagen specializes in the production of corrugated cardboard packaging and special packaging. At the Damme site, around 400 employees process the supplied format goods into folding boxes, erecting boxes, blanks or multi-component packaging. Following an expansion of production, the high-bay warehouse completed by Hörmann Logistik in 2010 was extended in 2015. With the construction of its own corrugated cardboard plant, Hörmann Logistik was now commissioned as general contractor to build an automatic format warehouse in an existing hall for the temporary storage of the corrugated cardboard formats produced.

The task

The new format warehouse is intended to achieve the following goals:

• Buffer storage for corrugated board stacks between corrugated board production and processing
• Storage and retrieval without load carriers and without load securing
• Flexible handling of a wide range of dimensions
• Just-in-time supply for processing

In the new 2-aisle format warehouse, the format stacks produced in the corrugator with a wide range of dimensions are temporarily stored until they are required for processing. The stacks are transported and stored without any load securing and without a bottom pallet.

Format warehouse in bullet points

• Dimensions: approx. 59.5 x 18 x 10.8 m (L x W x H)
• Number of aisles: 2
• Storage and retrieval machines: Two-mast storage and retrieval machines, rack-bound
• Load handling equipment: Telescopic forks with 11 forks each
• Storage type: single-deep
• Stacking dimensions max.: 3,730 x 2,620 x 1,850 mm
• Stacking weight max.: 3,000 kg
• Compartment occupancy: 1-4 stacks per compartment depending on stack size
• Storage capacity: 49 packing units per hour
• Retrieval capacity: 33 packing units per hour
• Storage locations: up to 752 stacks

The two storage and retrieval machines (SRMs) are each equipped with 11 telescopic forks for picking up loads. The forks can extend either simultaneously or separately, depending on the size of the packaging unit. After the contour check at the storage infeed, the packaging units are conveyed to the stacker crane transfer stations and aligned. The stacker crane then picks up the packaging unit and, depending on the size of the packaging unit and the storage compartment, moves it precisely to the storage compartment by means of compartment fine positioning. An optical camera is used for this purpose, which is oriented to the positioning holes in the support bar. During retrieval, the stacker crane collects up to two packing units on the load carrier and transfers them to the retrieval point.

A view of the conveyor line of the automated format storage system. Photo: Hörmann Logistik

Both storage and retrieval machines work with the HiLIS ECO power management system, which saves up to 25% of energy consumption through intelligent energy balancing. In addition to the DC link technology, in which the energy released from one axis is immediately used for another axis, energy recovery units are also used to feed any surplus energy from braking or lowering back into the power grid.

Success after ten months of project duration

Hörmann Logistik's scope of delivery includes steel rack construction, storage and retrieval machines with control technology, control technology for the conveyor technology in the warehouse area, the HiLIS warehouse management and control system with interface to HOST and the system visualization. The system was successfully put into operation in February 2017 after a project period of around ten months.

www.zerhusen.dewww.hoermann-logistik.de