The German company Kasto is a global supplier of industrial warehousing systems and sawing machines, most of which offer a high degree of ‘operational autonomy’.

Ernst Wagner, managing director of the company’s UK and Ireland subsidiary (based in Milton Keynes — www.kasto.com), says that in the markets into which he sells, automating the two initial steps in manufacturing — the storage of raw material and cutting it prior to the first production process — is essential in order to stay competitive in world markets.

He says: “Britain and Ireland lag behind most developed nations in their adoption of all types of mechanisation.

“Nearly half of the carbide circular sawing machines sold in Germany have some degree of automation — for example, the inclusion of robotic chamfering, centring or the sorting of cut pieces without operator intervention.

“Also, there are many examples of automation applied to bandsawing installations, not only in Germany but also throughout Europe and the USA. Here again, around half of these installations are automated to some extent.

“A single robot can serve more than one sawing machine, leading to greater efficiency and faster return on investment.

“In the UK however, such examples are rare, despite there being 1,400 Kasto saw installations in this market — of which two-thirds are more than 15 years old.”

Regarding the manufacture and supply of automated industrial storage systems, Kasto has installed 1,900 world-wide, but there are only eight of the top-end fully automatic warehouses in the UK.

Mr Wagner said: “This is despite goods-to-operator material handling being typically three-times faster than manual picking, added to which automated storage has a footprint up to 75% smaller than conventional racking.

“Automation saves valuable space, significantly increases output and growth, and lowers cost per pick.

“The potential for British and Irish stockholders and manufacturers to benefit by up-grading and automating both their logistical and sawing functions is enormous.

“There are early signs that more firms are getting the message and that the UK’s short-term approach to investment in manufacturing is starting to come to an end, as is its failure over the past couple of generations to promote apprenticeships.

“I foresee that manufacturing will become an ever more important part of the economy over the coming years — and provide an increasing percentage of GDP.”

Alongside this prediction, Mr Wagner cites what he regards as an interesting statistic. “A rule of thumb is that a manufacturer should spend 3-5% of the capital cost of a sawing machine ‘per shift per annum’ on keeping it in peak condition.

“The reality is that firms in the UK spend, on average, 1% and consequently sawing efficiency declines over the years.

“A machine can deteriorate to the point where, from an investment point of view, there is little to be gained from its continued use, especially considering that the saw is old technology and therefore less efficient than a newer model.”

His message is: do not ignore service, but take out a service contract with a full maintenance package from the outset.

“It is an undeniable fact that poorly serviced machines perform less efficiently and break down more often, which can easily have a bigger financial impact in terms of lost production and repair bills than paying for regular planned maintenance.

“Users of Kasto’s high-end bandsaw range — KastoTec — tend to be better at maintaining their equipment than others, as these saws are to be found in arduous environments, processing tough and exotic alloys in the petrochemical, aerospace, nuclear, defence and motor-sport sectors.

“Cutting these materials is a job that the saws perform two- to three-times faster than other machines on the market; and because they mainly use carbide-tipped saw blades, they need to be kept in good condition to ensure that costly stock is not wasted and production efficiency is maintained.

“More than 110 such saws have been delivered to UK and Irish customers in the past decade. These machines have been designed for cutting with carbide blades and to reduce vibration to an absolute minimum for optimised sawing productivity.”

Focus on design

An extensive re-design of the KastoTec saw has seen the introduction of a frequency-controlled 15kW bevel-spur-gear drive offering cutting speeds up to 300m/min, while accurate material in-feed continues to be by a ballscrew drive (as used for axis positioning on mainstream machine tools).

“Most importantly, hydraulically actuated down-feed has been replaced by a pair of steplessly adjustable electric motors and ballscrew drives.

“Close control over the feed rate of the blade into the material — with minimal use of sensors — enables the cutting parameters for each job to be continuously optimised, not only at the beginning and end of the cut but also through-out the sawing process.

“With hydraulics now used only for clamping material, energy consumption has been cut by some 40%.

“Moreover, the elimination of hydraulic drives has enabled a reduction in cutting times by as much as half in some instances, as well as reduced blade wear, helped by patented low-vibration design features.”

Asked why this approach to machine design had not been introduced earlier, Mr Wagner said that while the technology was already in use on carbide circular saws, which use a rigid blade, a bandsaw blade requires much greater sensitivity and necessitates more-responsive control electronics to react and adapt to a highly efficient, mechanical ballscrew feed.

“Otherwise, the blade would wear too quickly, due to the continuously changing engagement length when sawing round material, pipes and beams — or even break if a hard spot in the material is encountered.

“Only when Kasto developed the KastoWin bandsaw range and invented KastoRespond did a higher level of control sensitivity became available.”

Optimised parameters

Forming part of the company’s proprietary control systems, KastoRespond measures the force on the band and continuously optimises down-feed pressure, allowing the machine to adapt to material quality, shape and heterogeneity.

As a result, blade life is maximised, and scrap is virtually eliminated. With regard to maximising up-time, services now available from Kasto include VisualAssistance — a video solution that allows customers to participate in maintaining their own machines and systems.

By means of an interactive app on a tablet, smartphone or smart glasses, users can send live videos to Kasto’s service experts and receive visual assistance and information in real time, minimising down-time in the event of a fault or during routine maintenance.

Customers can use the system to connect to service staff, using audio or video streams that allow users and Kasto engineers to share the same field of view in real time.

In conclusion, Mr Wagner says: “Automation is key. Trying to pare back raw-material costs will only get you so far; reducing the labour overhead is where the real benefits lie.

“In everything Kasto does, a cost-saving solution emerges, because we know that capital investment in our equipment can be offset against a saving in operator hours.

“We do the cost analyses for customers and show them how their investment will pay for itself in typically six to 12 months — and increase productivity for many years after that.

“We prove to them how not only machine design but also robots and other methods of automation can improve their bottom line and help increase competitiveness.

“As far as our automated storage systems are concerned, the 1,900 installations around the globe have been delivered to one-third that many customers.

“This is proof that when a company has one of our warehouses, it often wants another. Admittedly it takes a few years to pay back the investment, but from then, on the systems represent pure profit through higher productivity.”