The Chinese Weiqiao Textile Group is expanding its field of business and investing in a production facility for aluminum at Shandong Weiqiao Aluminum & Electricity Company in Zouping located in the province of Shandong in eastern China.
To ensure the secure transport and storage of the coils produced in the hot rolling mill and subjected to further processing in the cold rolling mills and strip processing lines the customer has ordered a high bay store and coil conveyor systems from SMS Logistiksysteme, Germany.
The order includes the complete system for the transport of the coils from the hot strip mill line to the store, transport to and from the cold rolling mills and in the finishing plant area as well as the three stacker cranes for the high-bay store.
While the coils are moved by pallet transport systems in the rolling mills, two Automatic Coil Transporters are used to take them from the store to the strip processing lines. These transport vehicles make use of a laser navigation system to travel along fixed routes within the plant.
In addition to the supply of the core equipment, the order also includes the entire planning of the logistics systems, engineering of the high bay storage system along with wall and roof structures, and a cooling system for cooling the coils in the store.
SMS Logistiksysteme has also been contracted to supply the warehouse management system for material tracking and coordinating all coil transport operations from the hot rolling mill to the packaging line.
Although the less complex transport machinery is to be manufactured in China under SMS Logistiksysteme supervision, the customer has specified that the main components such as stacker cranes and A.C.T vehicles as well as the entire automation systems are to be delivered from Europe.
With an overall length of 290 meters the high bay store has enough space for around 1,400 coils. All the storage locations are designed for the maximum coil diameter of 2,800 mm and a coil weight of 301. The start up of the high bay store and transport system is planned to be completed in April 2013.
