SWISS KRONO is a leading international provider of wood materials. The traditional company is producing laminated panels and designs for furniture production and interior fittings as well as floorings and oriented-strand boards for solid wood construction. The Swiss manufacturer maintains ten factories in eight countries today and continues to invest in development of its production facilities. Vollert recently installed an automated high-bay warehouse in the group’s largest factory in Zary, Poland, to accelerate picking and shipping of rainbow stacks with design panels and countertops. Although the two-row warehouse with 11 levels on a length of 60 meters offers up to 1,700 storage location combinations for up to 920 storage locations, Vollert’s stacker crane permits secure storage and retrieval of wood panel packages that can weigh as much as 2.5 tons within no more than minutes.
High acceleration and traveling speed
The 12-meter-high stacker crane is storing the wood panels safely on cantilevers in left- and right-hand stacks alike in the new high-bay warehouse. A pressure plate secures the panel stack from above during acceleration to permit high traveling speeds of up to 3.5 m/s – which equals short cycle times of up to 26 double cycles per hour. An integrated length, height, and contour inspection will check beforehand that the panels actually correspond to the packages stored in the system and that they have been stacked correctly. Three different product sizes are available, at 2.07 x 2.8 m, 1.2 x 4.1 m, and 0.6 x 4.1 m. Three variable telescoping forks on the stacker crane automate optimized handling of the different lengths. Up to three panel packages are stored per compartment for optimal utilization of the storage locations. Products are delivered to shipping on roller tracks. Vollert supplied the control unit, the stacker crane, and the steel structure for the high-bay warehouse, also considering integration of a fire protection facility.
Shipping on call – ready for the future
SWISS KRONO enables just-in-time provision of wood panels at the picking places before direct shipping to the customers in its new high-bay storage. The system permits direct access to any panel stack and provision of the same within just a few minutes while preventing damage in automated transport. SWISS KRONO thus is ready for the future with custom shipping on call. Similar projects are already being planned and implemented with Vollert for other sites.
