CRANES & HOISTS Demag
CRANES & HOISTS Demag hybrid crane system sets new standards in stainless steel facility For the Butting Group, Knesebeck/ Germany, which specializes in corrosion-resistant steel, Terex Material Handling, Düsseldorf/ Germany, has developed an innovative special solution that meets the need for maximum process flexibility. The heart of the Demag crane system package installed at the Schwedt location in Germany is a hybrid application that combines two proven crane types into one. Butting was founded as a copper workshop in Crossen on the river Oder (now part of Poland) in 1777. In the course of more than 235 years, the former workshop has grown into a group of companies that has more than 1,900 employees. Today, it is managed in the seventh generation by Hermann Butting and is present in all of the world’s growth markets. Its business activities focus on the processing of corrosionresistant steel and clad materials. It processes approximately 80,000 tons of material every year. Product solutions supplied by Butting are used in one of the largest pulp factories in South America, for example. For the Cern research institute in Geneva, the manufacturer has supplied beam screen tubes in which particles are accelerated. A further prestige project includes Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is currently the tallest building in the world. Its outer facade features specially developed decorative and structural pipes. Entering new vessel dimensions Within the group, Butting Anlagenbau GmbH & Co. KG is the business unit that specializes in vessels and special pipes, international installation work and industrial service. At the location in Schwedt on the river Oder (Uckermark district), more than 350 members of staff provide all-round service: from CAD planning to prefabrication, installation and maintenance. Not only vessels and special pipes to customer specifications are pre-produced in Schwedt, but also large vessels, columns and equipment for mechanical engineering applications. The site covers an area of some 90,000 m². On this large property, Butting erected a new building measuring 25 m wide, 185 m long and 12 m high in 2013. Besides the actual production areas, it also includes two separate sections arranged at right angles, which are used for pickling and X-ray operations. The new building was necessary to accommodate an increase in the product 26 f+h Intralogistics 5/2015
CRANES & HOISTS portfolio. It was designed to enable larger vessels than ever before to be manufactured in one piece at the location in future. “In our new Building 5, we will develop a line where we can also manufacture vessels that have inside dimensions of up to six metres”, explains Ulrich Menter, Commercial Director at Butting Anlagenbau responsible for vessel construction, on the background to the investment. Previously, it had only been possible to achieve a height of three metres. Innovative solution To supply the assembly workplaces, the new building has been equipped with Demag Universal cranes, which have load capacities ranging from five to 12.5 tons. This solution initially sounds fairly mundane, but goes far beyond standard applications. “The entire building is designed to offer the maximum possible flexibility. We achieved this by splitting the building along an imaginary line over its length and by implementing a special solution with the cranes”, explains Mario Kulow, Technical Director at Butting Anlagenbau responsible for vessel construction. “The special layout of the crane installations enables the production areas located in both halves of the building to operate more independently of each other.” The Demag engineers developed the cranes together with Butting on the basis of Demag Universal cranes. As standard units, they already offer optimum utilization of the available space. Their compact design, minimum approach dimensions and large hook path are contributory factors. Despite the limited height available inside the building, two levels of cranes were installed in order to utilize the full height. “Our strategy when planning this production complex was to achieve maximum flexibility from the very beginning”, Menter further explains. “Although we split the building into the right and left sides of the bay, we did not assign the available space to any particular assembly method. The real challenge consisted of serving the individual assembly stations with crane systems as independently as possible.” That means that if About Terex MHPS machines are being used with support from the cranes that are arranged on one side of the building, it must still be possible to transport material on the other side of the building, where the door is located, at the same time. The aim, therefore, was to deploy the cranes as independently as possible in various sections of the building. “This would not have been possible if we had crane bridges that spanned the entire upper level”, emphasizes Kulow. “A crane needed at one of the machines would have been blocked for other tasks and we would not be able to move any material past that particular workplace”. Due to its Demag product range and the expert advice and planning assistance provided by the teams involved in this project, Terex Material Handling was able to meet this unusual specification for the cranes. Terex MHPS is one of the world’s leading suppliers of crane technology with Demag industrial cranes and crane components. The core competence of the Terex Material Handling business group lies in the development, design and production of technically sophisticated cranes, hoists and components and the provision of services for these products. The business group manufactures in 19 countries on five continents and is present in more than 60 countries, reaching customers in more than 100 countries. CODES BECOME WORLDS. There are more than just codes with the camerabased reading technology from market leader VITRONIC. German state-of-the-art Auto-ID systems like VIPAC dws and VICAM snap! , capture images which make your logistics processes faster and more efficient. 27.10.2015 C5-1 hall W2 Experience our systems live at the CeMAT Asia trade show in Shanghai, 27–30 October 2015. www.vitronic.com
