An investment with many benefits

STOPA has also installed a transport cart that draws its energy from batteries and runs on rails without an energy supply chain

The main load carriers in the warehouse, which is located in the middle between a production and assembly hall, are system pallets. These can hold sheet metal packages or four pallet cages loaded with material. The same applies to Euro pallets. Various containers offer further possibilities. Components and semi-finished products can also be stored loose up to a height of 1,520 millimetres. In the past, the operator used forklift trucks to transport the metal sheets and other material from A to B, which took a considerable amount of time. The main load carriers used were pallet cages and Euro pallets. In addition, semi-finished products were stacked on the floor or on traditional shelves. Materials were also stored and retrieved using forklift trucks. This solution meant that larger areas were occupied and the search for the right parts proved to be cumbersome and time-consuming.

As Pfanzelt works with sheet metal formats of up to 1,500 x 4,000 millimetres, the decision was made to build a 90-metre-long and around ten-metre-high warehouse. Equipped with 1,030 storage locations, a load capacity of 3,000 kilograms and a capacity of 3,090 tons, the system is suitable as a hub in the material flow. “Between the production and assembly hall, the system, which is used as a logistics center, is equipped with transport trolleys on both sides of its front ends, which serve as storage and retrieval stations,” explains Masharin. “This allows materials to be stored at one end and retrieved at the other.” The storage and retrieval machine (SRM) transports the system pallets in the warehouse. As a third station, STOPA has installed a transport trolley that draws its energy from rechargeable batteries and runs on rails without an energy supply chain. The contacts for charging the trolley are built into the steel structure. As the storage system is located in a pit, the transport trolleys in the storage area run on special platforms.

The investment in the warehouse has freed up floor areas for the operator’s production

Pfanzelt has connected its production and assembly halls through the warehouse and via a manually operated overhead conveyor system. The track runs mostly parallel in the upper area of the STOPA COMPACT warehouse. Approximately in the middle of the warehouse, the overhead conveyor crosses a bridge mechanically constructed in consultation with STOPA before reliably supplying the assembly area with painted parts in a curved route. To ensure safety when the overhead conveyor crosses the warehouse, an employee at the system’s control panel signals that the conveyor should be used and the bridge should be folded down.

The storage and retrieval machine then automatically moves into the defined area of the storage system, where it can move at a reduced and therefore safe speed and store and retrieve the system pallets. In this part of the system there are also two transport trolleys installed as stations, which can be used to store and retrieve materials, while the operator can use the bridge and the overhead conveyor in parallel.

Masharin shows a photo. To secure the crossing, STOPA has also installed manually sliding gates on both sides, which make it possible to unblock access in order to transport components across the bridge on the overhead conveyor. The crossing is integrated into the control and safety system of the warehouse and is therefore an electrotechnical part of the system.”

The system components are controlled by a Siemens WinLC-RTX real-time soft PLC integrated into an industrial PC. The higher-level warehouse management software STOPA LVS Extended has been implemented to operate the warehouse system, manage the material and store incoming and outgoing goods, and has been linked to Pfanzelt’s ERP system via an interface. The company can also use the interface to query its 37,000 items of item master data as well as its stocks and evaluate the booking journal. The operator can also use the software to generate transport orders.

Apart from this, LVS Extended offers all the functions required to operate and manage one or more high-bay warehouses. In addition, the software, in conjunction with the sensors installed on the stacker crane, enables dynamic storage, also known as chaotic storage,” emphasizes Masharin. With chaotic storage, the company takes advantage of the opportunity to store pallets at six variable loading heights. After the system was commissioned in January 2020, the operators quickly adapted to the new way of working.

The production and assembly halls are connected by the warehouse and a manually operated overhead conveyor system

Pfanzelt cites the distinct overview offered by the STOPA COMPACT warehouse as the main advantage of the solution, making lengthy searches unnecessary. Instead, you can now enter the article number and see how much stock is available so that you can reorder in a targeted manner. Another key factor in the decision was the ability for the operator to store many of the different parts required in production.

Masharin is satisfied: “Other advantages highlighted by the company include the ability to access the required components and semi-finished products promptly, as well as the rapid storage and retrieval of parts. Added to this are significant performance, efficiency and careful handling of the material. Pfanzelt also emphasizes the tidiness of the solution and the need to invest in a larger warehouse.”

According to the operator, the manufacturer’s sales engineer for storage technology responded quickly to his inquiry and change requests. The same applies to the preparation of layouts and quotations and consequently to the most important decision-making bases. Pfanzelt is therefore a proud example of how STOPA has gained another customer in Bavaria, in this case in the Allgäu region.

Author: Jürgen Warmbol