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Vollert Anlagenbau develops a 260-ton automatic crane for Vallourec & Mannesmann Tubes

A 260-ton automatic crane is the latest highlight in Vollert's intralogistics programme for heavy-duty applications. Capable of travelling up to 2.7 m/s and featuring a 44-m span width, the crane has a 35-ton payload and will be used to transport heavy objects on site at the customer's steel tube plant in Düsseldorf-Rath. The world's market leader manufacturers steel tubes for applications in oil and gas fields, power plants, and the chemical and petrochemical industry.

The new automatic crane with top-mounted running gear is the largest ever in the 85-year history of the Weinsberg-based intralogistics specialist. With a length, width, and height of 44, 1.60, and 2.60 metres, respectively, the bridge girders can be easily walked on. The control house on the bridge crane also offers plenty of room. The crane links the individual manufacturing areas with the interim warehouse, which can store up to 784 steel tubes. More than 300 metres of track are at its disposal, allowing the crane to travel to over 200 pick-up and drop-off points in the enclosed hall as well as access the different production lines and the shipping area. V & M Tubes owns two hot-rolling mills in Düsseldorf-Rath. The tubes, which can measure up to 15 metres in length, are transported in cassettes that weigh over 30 tons. Five to six cassettes can be stacked in rows in the warehouse. Conventional spreaders with a twist-lock catch on the running gear pick up the cassettes as required. Two hoisters on the gear lift the heavy load before it starts to move to its destination to prevent swaying. The hoisters also level out the load with the help of electronics.

Optimum Material Flow, Intelligent Warehouse Management

"The goal was to develop a high-performance system that would reliably link the production lines and warehouse drop-off points so that we could boost the productivity of the entire operation", explains Henry Schulze, Vollert project manager in charge. The original plan called for a manually operated crane; the experts at Vollert Anlagenbau, however, knew that their precision automatic control technology was the better choice. The crane already installed, which uses the same crane rail, was also fitted with a positioning system and connected to the master computer, which receives the incoming orders, optimises processes, coordinates moving jobs, and sends these jobs to both cranes. Vollert's material flow computer can also ensure that only like tubes or tubes that belong to one order are moved and grouped. Stacking and order-picking processes are initiated during periods of inactivity. Priority orders can also be processed at any time. "Our warehouse management system also takes the distance between the automatic cranes and their current payload into account when determining routes", stresses Schulze. "This allows a load to be handed from one crane to the next at the halfway point, for example." Both cranes are thus used as efficiently as possible, with an average of 20 handovers carried out each hour. The new intralogistics system safeguards 24-hour production for Vallourec & Mannesmann Tubes.

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