Tower increases storage density 10-fold, delivering steel tube to an ergonomic height

Storage News

	'As soon as Kasto UK came on the scene, it was immediately receptive to tailoring a storage tower to suit the application.'
The Kasto Unitower E3 store at AESSEAL, Rotherham, stocks up to 72 tonnes of steel tube in an area nearly ten times smaller than that previously occupied by fir tree racking.

The UK’s largest manufacturer of mechanical seals, AESSEAL, prides itself on the highest operational and ethical standards, from the design and manufacture of its products through to excellence in customer service. So the company decided that it needed to improve its receipt, storage and distribution of stainless steel tube within its Rotherham headquarters.

Installation of an automated, multi-level storage system from Kasto for stocking up to 72 tonnes of tube and delivering it to the operators at waist height was central to the solution, improving safety and freeing up floor space for manufacturing expansion. It also helped AESSEAL to secure accreditation to the occupational health and safety standard, OHSAS 18001, to add to its ISO 9001:2000 quality management, ISO 14001 environmental management standards, and Investor in People certification.

Called Unitower E3, the 8-metre high Kasto store comprises 24 cassettes, each capable of holding three tonnes of tube, and a gantry crane that picks up the selected cassette and drops it to an unload station at the front of the tower in less than a minute. From there, if the load is relatively light – say below 15 kg – the operator carries the stock by hand to one of the CNC lathes and loads it into the ma gazine or puts a single tube straight into the spindle. For heavier picks, he uses a Scaglia electronic counterbalance handling trolley with dedicated tube handling attachment, the whole unit being moved between store and machine on an electric pallet truck.

Said Richard Cook, Production Director, “Previously, raw material would be delivered to us on pallets and be put away into fir-tree style racks whose locations varied from six inches to six feet off the ground and occupied an area of 96 square metres. Apart from the risk of injury to our personnel, it tended to take a long time to locate stock for the next job and transfer it to the machine.

“With our turnover growing year-on-year by 25 per cent, production efficiency is of the essence, especially at the Rotherham site as it is responsible for our larger batches of between 50- and 100-off. So streamlining materials handling here was becoming more of a priority.”

Another issue was the voracious appetite in China for steel, which could have affected availability in the UK. With around 95 per cent of AESSEAL’s production being in 316 stainless tube and bar, it was felt that larger stocks were needed both on-site and also on consignment at the supplier. The problem proved to be less serious than predicted, but the company was committed to holding more material. To minimise storage costs, a small system footprint was desirable and the 5 by 2 metre dimensions of the Kasto tower achieved this objective as well, as it occupies an area nearly 10 times less than that previously needed for conventional storage.

	'The Kasto facility is in essence used as a large chest of drawers, and has proved very effective at storing a large volume and variety of material in a small space and presenting it on demand quickly.'
Tube stored in the Kasto system are random pre-cut lengths, 1 to 1.2 metres long, which are placed three abreast in each 840 deep by 200 mm high cassette.

Tube stored in the system are random pre-cut lengths, 1 to 1.2 metres long, which are placed three abreast in each 840 deep by 200 mm high cassette. A maximum of seven different tube sizes up to 92 mm diameter and 30 mm wall thickness are stocked in any given cassette. It is not possible, therefore, to use the stock control capability of the system; this is performed manually. The Kasto facility is in essence used as a large chest of drawers, as Richard puts it, and has proved very effective at storing a large volume and variety of material in a small space and presenting it on demand quickly.

When it came to researching the market for a storage system, AESSEAL looked at the big names in the industry and found many that wanted to sell a standard system. However, flexibility in suppliers was hard to come by, according to Richard, who commented that as soon as Kasto UK came on the scene, it was immediately receptive to tailoring a storage tower to suit the application. Consequently it pulled AESSEAL away from looking at any other suppliers and discussions commenced in earnest.

Kasto engineers from the German parent company visited Rotherham and were equally accommodating. The standard double-sided Unitower design was reconfigured to a longer, single-sided store that made better use of the space available at Rotherham. In addition, the design included provision to attach a further Unitower on the end, as future requirements dictate. Full cladding was added so that the system matched the paternoster carousels on site, which store a higher level of finished product than at any other UK seal supplier.