heroal produces more than 60 million meters of powder-coated aluminum windows, doors and facade profiles every year. In addition to profile systems for roller shutters, roller doors, shadings and photovoltaics. In order to manage the large quantities efficiently and to supply the more than 3,000 customers worldwide in a timely manner, heroal invested in a completely new logistics center at the German site of Hövelhof near Paderborn. On a total area of 60,000 m2 there is a high-bay warehouse with eight aisles for long items and three alleys for small parts, as well as a warehouse with 20,000 m2 space. The integration of the eleven storage and retrieval machines into the infeed, and the picking with the outfeed was carried out by the heavy lift experts from Vollert in March 2010. After all, the transport carriers weigh up to 2.3 tons.
Heavy load technology on quiet soles
From the infeed to the outfeed, the internal transport is fully automatic. Only the picking of the customers' orders is carried out manually, long items and small parts separately. Large quantities are picked using a bypass solution. Due to the fact that the workers' workplaces are located in the immediate vicinity of the conveyor system, especially low-noise Vulkollan hard rubber tires are used instead of steel wheels. Low wear is ensured by extremely wide cross-sections. The to and from transport of the profile carriers, with the up to 7.2 m long aluminum profiles, is distributed over two levels. Infeed and outfeed is carried out on the ground floor, while storage and return of empty transport carriers are at a height of 4 m. An automatic crane in front of the high-bay warehouse serves eight storage trolleys on a 60-meter-long crane track to the rack-storage equipment of the long-item storage facility. Sensors measure the length and height of the carriers. The control system then automatically selects the appropriate storage location. An automatic weight, height and clearance control of the pallet boxes and euro pallets, which are transported by roller and chain conveyors and use the same conveyor technology, is also used in the small parts storage. In order to prevent downtime, two lifters lower the pallets for relocation to rail-mounted distribution cars, which distribute them to four picking stations.
25.000 carriers in circulation
The transport carriers of heroal are a special feature. "For many years these have been circulating with customers and suppliers - a total of around 25,000 pieces - and some have been damaged by manual stacker operations", explains project manager Dieter Schäfer from Vollert. "Nevertheless, we wanted to keep the carriers for cost reasons". All systems were adapted to the existing system. In addition, a tolerance measurement was carried out in a full carrier lifter at the time of delivery. Badly damaged carriers are disposed of. This ensures trouble-free operations in the warehouse. "As our logistics center takes over the entire customer supply, the timely completion and a smooth warehouse change were very important for us," emphasizes Ralf Meermeier, Technical Director at heroal. For this, the warehouse had to be completely filled weeks before. "But Vollert's colleagues have done a good job - despite the short realization time. "We were able to start with the new warehouse without any delays at the turn of the year and since then we have been supplying the entire world from Hövelhof".
