Wood Wood

Hasler

fehr honeycomb superlight. The well designed material buffer store

The family-owned firm of Hasler with its production plant in Therwil manufactures windows and doors to specification and in series on the latest production facilities. The material buffer store from fehr  allows a clearly managed overview of materials. A fully automated saw connection brings the wooden blocks directly from the cassette to the sawing machine. The special design means that several buffer stores could be realised without an additional peripheral station.

Technical data
Max. system height 5m
Number of bins 50–150
Max. payload 1,5 t
Use of customer frames  yes

Leimholz Haag AG

fehr honeycomb. The perfect high-bay warehouse for long goods for the timber industry

Leimholz Haag AG has made a name for itself in the Swiss timber industry with years of experience in the manufacture and further processing of laminated timber. The company built a new plant in in Steinach in 2014. The main concern when building the new factory was to make the flow of materials as efficient as possible. This is why Leimholz Haag AG struck out in a new direction for warehousing technology and decided on a high-bay warehouse. The order was carried out by fehr Lagerlogistik AG in Winterthur.

The high-bay warehouse for long goods that has proven itself in the steel industry is still something of an anomaly in the timber sector. In initial talks between fehr and Leimholz Haag AG, the first thing that had to be clarified was whether a high-bay warehouse for long goods could in fact be realised in the timber industry. After all, Leimholz Haag AG has over 200 different material dimensions in various qualities, from laminated timber, frame timber, laminate beams, solid structural timber via element ribs and construction boards through to support forms.

The decision was taken for a fehr honeycomb high-bay warehouse consisting of a 16-metre-high storage and retrieval unit with 604 bins. A maximum of over 3000 cubic metres of laminated timber and solid structural timber could be stored. The maximum length was 13 metres. The wood packages are transported on cassettes. Apart from the standard cassette, there are also ones that can be stacked higher. Both the cassettes and the storage and retrieval unit can carry a maximum payload of 3500 kilograms. Not forgetting the relatively high discharge speed of 100 metres a minute. Thanks to detailed calculations by the fehr technicians, a smooth and fully automated procedure could be guaranteed.

 

We are delighted that we tackled this unconventional concept for a high-bay warehouse for long timber goods together with fehr Lagerlogistik AG. Our success proves us right, we were even able to greatly exceed the improved efficiency we initially hoped for. We have gained some decisive competitive advantages with the fehr honeycomb high-bay warehouse. This has been noticed by not only our customers but our suppliers too. Thanks to their many years of experience and professional commitment, fehr Lagerlogistik AG has given a new impetus to the flow of materials in our company.

Peter Haag, CEO Leimholz Haag AG, Steinach/SG

The fehr honeycomb high-bay warehouse could also be connected to the incoming and outgoing materials stations with no problems. The wood is delivered by trucks. It is placed in the waiting cassettes with a side stacker and moved directly to the storage and retrieval unit by conveyor technology. Conversely, the storage and retrieval unit transfers a cassette to the conveyor technology. This is taken from the warehouse and transported to the staging area where a lifting device removes the packages from the cassette. These are then taken up by the stacker and loaded onto the truck.

The cassette is irrelevant when accessing the material. The material which is to be removed from the warehouse is called up on the PC. Stocks in every bin are thus always under control. A minimum quantity of every product is saved in the system; if stocks drop below this the product is reordered.

The advantages of the fehr honeycomb high-bay warehouse are obvious for Leimholz Haag AG: the company can offer its customers a unique stock range. And deliveries are carried out in record time. A cassette can be removed from the warehouse, made available in the outgoing goods department and returned again in only two-and-a-half minutes. This means that having to wait for laminated timber and solid structural wood is thing of the past. Despite these perfect warehousing logistics, only a minimum number of personnel are needed: the fehr honeycomb high-bay warehouse for long goods is operated by only one employee. And this employee can even get on with other work as soon as the order has been entered in the PC. Apart from the time-savings thanks to the “Material-to-man” principle, the risk of accidents is also significantly minimised compared to a cantilever warehouse.

Technical data
Max. system height up to 26m
Number of bins 800 – ∞
Max. payload up to 7t
Use of customer frames  yes

In order to guarantee compliance with the fire protection regulations, work in the Leimholz Haag AG high-bay warehouse is carried out with reduced oxygen. The plant has been inspected and approved by experts. An ideally functioning fire protection system could therefore be put into operation.

 The storage and retrieval unit was assembled on site using a mobile crane. The bottom cross beam was first placed in position, followed by the two masts and the lift truck as well as the upper cross beam. The mechanical assembly was completed in a day. The storage and retrieval unit was then connected to the power supply. After only one week, the storage and retrieval unit was ready for use. The fehr honeycomb high-bay warehouse could be built as a roof-supporting structure while the new building was being done. The new high-bay warehouse for long goods was completed in autumn 2013. It went into operation at the beginning of 2014.