Automated bar store streamlines production
June 1st 2011 Since the beginning of 2011,
production efficiency has increased
significantly at the hot coiling facility
of Hanson Springs in Mellor Street,
Rochdale, following the installation
of a 25-metre-high storage tower
from Kasto to house the bar from
which the springs are made.
They are used globally for flow
control applications in the oil and
gas, petrochemical and power
generation sectors, all of which are
currently buoyant and demanding
more springs in faster delivery times.
John Hanson, a director of the
company, says: "Whereas it used to
take us up to three hours to find
material buried at the bottom of
conventional racking, bar is now
available from the tower within three
and a half minutes of calling it up on
the computer control screen.
"This is a maximum cycle time;
mostly the stock is delivered to the
output station much faster.
Previously, we planned our
manufacture around bar that was
reasonably accessible at any given
time. However, if an urgent order
came in requiring access to elusive
bar, staff had no alternative but to
spend time searching for it.
"Using the automated storage and
retrieval system, flexibility of
production has improved and leadtime
is reduced, sometimes
dramatically."
The typical size of a batch of
springs is in the range two- to 50-off,
requiring frequent changeover of the
coiling plant. Use of this expensive
plant is maximised by prompt arrival
of cut-to-length steel bar. Fifteen
tonnes are processed daily and
increased profitability will readily
amortise the £1 million investment
in the storage tower and associated
civil engineering work.
Many additional benefits accrue
from enhanced logistics. For
example, a 23-ton truck previously
took around three hours to unload
because the overhead crane
progressed with each batch of bar at
slower than walking pace along the
conventional racking. Stocking the
Kasto tower takes 40 minutes – four
to five times faster – as the store's
input / output station is just inside
the door.
Further advantages of the tower
store include better security of the
raw material, which can only be
accessed by PIN code. Another
benefit is reduced risk to crane
operators, since they less frequently
have to reach around bundles of bar
on conventional racks to put on
lifting straps. Some racks have been
retained, however, to store material
over 10 metres long – the tower's
maximum capacity. More articles from Kasto Ltd: | 
