Automated store and sawing equipment

The new storage system at SEW is a combination of a Kasto Unicompact honeycomb storage facility with 5,140 cassettes and a KASTOcenter sawing centre with 450 storage locations

SEW-Eurodrive, a leading global manufacturer and supplier of electric motors, gear units, gear motors and associated automation, has installed an advanced storage and sawing system in a new high-bay warehouse integrated into a recently extended, 62,000m² production facility in Graben-Neudorf, Southwest Germany. Both the automated store and the sawing equipment were supplied by German manufacturer Kasto, which has a subsidiary Kasto Ltd in Milton Keynes.

The order placed by SEW was one of the largest-ever received by Kasto in its 180-year history. Within the 4,000m² warehouse, the supplier has installed a Unicompact honeycomb storage system with 5,140 cassettes having a load capacity of three tonnes, as well as an integrated KASTOcenter sawing centre with 450 locations for tube or bar.

Eight automated KASTOvariospeed C 18 production circular saws process stock up to 180mm in diameter

The Unicompact offers high-density 3-D storage in a compact footprint to maximise the use of space. An overhead gantry crane transports material to seven KASTOpick split outfeed stations where it is separated by lifting mechanisms and transferred to the infeed roller conveyors of the saws. There is potential to connect three further outfeed stations if required.

Eight automated KASTOvariospeed C 18 production circular saws have been supplied to process stock up to 180mm in diameter. The heavy-duty, CNC production saws cut solid material as well as tubes and profiles to length.The Kasto sawing centre comprises buffer storage for material and a KASTOtec SC 4 high-performance, horizontal bandsaw with infinitely variable cutting speed. Stock including tool steel and difficult-to-cut materials such as titanium and nickel alloys from 22 to 260mm in diameter is cut into individual pieces.

Innovative solution
A KASTOsort robot handling system sorts and stacks the cut pieces. The innovative solution independently selects grippers, containers and stacking patterns. Automated guided vehicles retrieve the boxes of cut pieces and transport them to their destinations in production.

As steel can be magnetised by transportation and friction, which can cause issues during production, Kasto has implemented a demagnetisation system in the goods-in area. A crane unloads material from a lorry onto a buffer chain conveyor. A barcode reader determines if the material is ferrous and if it is not, it goes immediately into store. If it is, the stock is routed to a bypass area where the transport cassette moves through a coil carrying a demagnetising alternating current.

At SEW, the KASTOtec SC 4 automatic bandsaw cuts material up to 260mm in diameter, although the machine has a capacity of 430mm

A KASTOlogic warehouse management system (WMS) ensures seamless flow of material throughout the facility. The software optimises the travel paths and checks and evaluates system changes. Kasto integrated the sawing machines and material handling into the WMS to achieve full automation of the entire process. KASTOlogic communicates with the SEW’s SAP enterprise resource planning system through an interface to provide an end-to-end, digitalised system.

Max Schmitt, Group production systems project manager at SEW, said: “Kasto customised the storage and sawing systems to meet our specific needs. The equipment supplies our new production facility at the Graben-Neudorf site with the correct materials, fully automatically, no matter whether the batch size is one or 10,000. Only three to four people are needed to operate the warehouse, which at a time when there is a general shortage of qualified personnel is a tremendous advantage.”