Die Firma Rico, die heute bei den Papier - und Kartonageherstellern mit seinen Erzeugnissen einen vergleichbar guten Ruf besitzt wie H+H in der Aluminiumindustrie, wurde 1996 von Juan Rico gegründet.  Das Unternehmen hat sich mit Beratung, Projektierung, Vertrieb und Service von Anlagen auf den Bereich der Papier- und Kartonausrüstung einen Namen gemacht. Zum Arbeitsfeld von Rico gehören vorzugsweise die Kernkomponenten der Branche als Stand-Alone-Lösungen, weniger die ergänzenden Ausrüstungen für Transport, Handling und Lagerung.
Die Peripherie einer komplexen Anlage, Förder- und Handlingsysteme einschließlich  Steuerung und IT- Ebene, ist die Stärke von H+H. So gehören beispielsweise Hochleistungs-Prozess-Krananlagen (Automatikkrane) für den flexiblen Transport von schweren Lasten, wie sie in der Papier- und Kartonverarbeitung häufig Verwendung finden, zu den besonderen Stärken von H+H.
Aus dieser Sicht macht eine Kooperation für beide Partner Sinn: Rico gewinnt Zugang zu dem marktführenden Know-how auf dem Sektor der Logistik von schweren Lasten und ist zukünftig in der Lage, Komplettlösungen anzubieten. H+H verschafft sich Zugang zu einem Arbeitsgebiet, auf dem seine Logistiklösungen erfolgversprechend eingesetzt werden können. Derzeit bearbeiten beide Unternehmen als erstes größeres Projekt eine Verpackungsanlage für mehrere Palettentypen bei einem Kartonagenhersteller

In Shed 41 at Deutz AG in Cologne diesel engines are assembled on a number of assembly lines. The engines cover a broad range of powers and are built in a total of several thousand different variants, sometimes in batch sizes of 1. The parts required for this are supplied in prescribed containers. The transfer station is designed in the manner of a lock where the vehicle docks. The load – grid-type pallets or similar– is transferred automatically from a semitrailer (roll-on / roll-off principle) into the goods reception area, automatically checked, and booked into the system. At the clearing end this sequence is repeated in reverse.

For reasons of space the goods-in and goods-out area must now be rearranged by rotating it through 90°. As the original supplier of the entire unit H+H will dismantle the whole system and rebuild it again in its new orientation – in part equipped with new functions and functional sequences.

This work has to be completed over a period of only three working weeks, including the re-start of operations. The unusually tight deadline demands detailed planning of the entire working sequence, all the more so since the agreed deadlines are subject to over-run penalties.

Mannstaedt specialises in the manufacture of hot-rolled, customer-specific steel sections and further-processed finished products and systems. The customer-specific section shapes have become established in numerous fields of application: as hinge sections for the automotive industry, as tracks for office furniture, as guides on floor-level conveyors and in many other designs. Designers and production engineers are aware of the advantages of a specially produced steel section for making components.

The hot-rolled, heat treated and sometimes also cold-formed sections are cut up into lengths at the far end of the production chain installed in the plant in Troisdorf, stacked, and packed.

The working steps after the saws are now to be integrated into the automated production flow. Besides the rationalisation effect associated with automation, this investment promises to make the work substantially easier and above all avoids damage during transport.

For this automation solution H+H is developing an automatic stacking machine which will stack the section lengths weighing up to 100 kg/m automatically in packs. During this the stacker can lay down the sections alternately rotated through 180° so that in each case two similar surfaces rest opposite one another. The stacks are taken by a roller track and chain conveyor to the packing station, where they are automatically strapped. Then, the packs, now ready for shipping, are taken to a transfer point.

The complete unit will start operating in August 2012.

2011 has been a good year for German extrusion plants. Over the past 12 months production has increased compared with the corresponding months of the previous year – sometimes by two-digit percentages - and this, even though the reference values of 2010 had already been regarded as satisfactory.

Capacities are already working at a high level of occupation. Thus, there is no alternative to capacity enlargement. At present this is taking place by selective modernisation measures that boost productivity. As the leading press manufacturer SMS Meer states in the latest issue of its customer information report, interest in press modernisation is growing and indeed H+H Herrmann + Hieber is currently working on a number of projects aiming to improve and automate internal logistics in extrusion plants.

In that sector H+H regards itself as the market leader. Experience from a large number of such projects at almost every major German extrusion plant and many others elsewhere in Europe shows that such measures not only improve economy and flexibility, but can also increase capacities.

A look at the long-term evolution of the extrusion industry in Germany shows that its positive development is likely to persist. The impressive upward trend of production in Germany’s extrusion industry, from around 250,000 tonnes in 1981 to about 600,000 tonnes in 2007 – on average an increase of 10,000 tonnes per year – will continue. Expectations in all the important customer industries – traffic and transport, building and mechanical engineering, which taken together account for around three-quarters of the demand for extruded products – still remain positive.

CSM Deutschland is the leading supplier of products and services in the German market for trade and industrial producers and bulk consumers of baked products. Under the well-known brand names “MeisterMarken” and “Ulmer Spatz”, among other things the company markets ingredients for patisserie, bread and buns, and parting agents in trade and large-scale bakeries. From the company’s product range it is evident that sophisticated logistics and extensive storage facilities are all-important for production operations.

As part of the now forthcoming modernisation in the area of the three-lane, high-rise shelf store for pallets, H+H is to carry out extensive work for the refurbishment of a shelf control and supply unit. In the past, the occurrence of wear there has led to faults. To stabilise automatic operation, above all the hoist guiderails (14 metres high) have to be refurbished.

Installation work at the customer’s plant will take place over an extended weekend in December this year, so as not to disrupt operations.

Constantia Teich GmbH, located in Weinburg 60 km west of Vienna, employs around 900 people and is a leading company of Constantia Flexibles. The company is an internationally leading supplier of flexible packaging materials made from aluminium, paper and plastics. Constantia Flexibles is provided with foil from its own aluminium rolling plant with a fully automatic material transport system and high-rise shelf store.

For the creation of a new lacquering unit modifications, rebuilding work and dismantling of existing plant have to be carried out. The new coil transport system between the store and lacquering buildings (a distance of around 65 metres) passes across the plant’s internal road and so has to be designed as a high-level stretch. In this case therefore, the sensitive aluminium foil must be protected against weather influences during transport.

The cycle time for the system as a whole is designed so that every hour at least 20 into-store or from-store operations can be carried out. Transport takes place with the help of load carriers, each for 4 coils with a total weight of around 16 tonnes. A special transport mechanism will be designed and built for the return transport of the bars needed for transporting the coils.

The new lacquering plant is now being built. The construction of the automatic coil transport system will begin in the spring of 2012. If the prescribed maintenance intervals for the conveyor technology and manipulators are adhered to, H+H guarantees an overall plant availability of 98.5 percent.

Amcor designs packaging from all the usual materials: plastics, me3tals, glass and others. The company’s internal logistics are largely automated. Following the strengthening of the automatic material transport to be able to take loads of up to a maximum of 17.5 tonnes in the first half of this year, now additional measures are required because of further weight increases.

The transport units (in each case six aluminium coils with their racks) now weighing up to 18 tonnes are transported reliably at Amcor with the help of a heavy-load mobile truck and correspondingly designed chain conveyors. A critical point in this was found to be the transfer between the automatic conveyor units. This is now being redesigned.

To avoid interfering with operations in progress, the assembly work will be carried out at weekends when no production is taking place. The time scale is short, since reconstruction must be completed in November this year.

The extrusion plant of Aluminium Laufen AG in Liesberg, Switzerland, now produces about 8,000 tonnes per year of pre-material for forging. While at the other presses in the plant the extruded sections are automatically stacked in crates after the layer saw and then transported, until now round bars have had to be handled manually. The personnel required for this involves costs and, with metre weights of up to 10 kg/m or more, the work entails considerable physical effort for the workers.

As part of a planned major investment Aluminium Laufen has now addressed the automation of this onerous work station. Together with the logistics specialist H+H Herrmann + Hieber in Denkendorf, which is also responsible for the automated in-house logistics at the plant, a new stacker concept was developed specially for the work step concerned. The handling of the sawn bar sections of round material differs from usual extrusion plant practice in several respects:

– A separate sample must be taken from each individual bar section. This is identified by location and point before being transferred to the laboratory.

– The leading and trailing ends of each bar and their middle portions have to be separated from one another.

–The sometimes large weight of the material – the unit is designed for bars in the diameter range 35 mm to 90 mm – must be allowed for in the design of all the stacker components. According to customer specification, the length is limited to 8 metres.

–The preferred packing for this material is hexagonal bundles, with the number of bars per bundle varying according to their dimensions.

The new unit began operating in September this year and is working perfectly well.

The BMW engine plant in Steyr produces 6-cylinder petrol engines and 4- and 6-cylinder diesel motors, as well as all the diesel motors for the Mini. The worldwide largest engine plant of the BMW group is highly automated and focused on maximum efficiency. In this, fully automated material transport plays a major role.

In the context of an extension investment the operating sequence is now to be restructured, and in this connection the material flow has to be modified. For this, among other things new components will be installed and adapted to the existing equipment.

This work has been entrusted by Bleichert Automation to H+H Herrmann + Hieber, which has already collaborated at this plant in earlier installations. The work should not interfere with operations at the engine plant. Completion is scheduled for December 2011.

When in 2007 Herma GmbH, the internationally leading manufacturer of self-adhesive labels, set up the world’s most modern coating plant for adhesive material, H+H was responsible for installing the complete, fully automatic material flow system. In December last year Herma awarded the contract for modernising the pallet conveyor technology in the goods reception area.

Now, in the context of a replacement investment an old vertical conveyor by another manufacturer, which can only still be used to a limited extent, is to be replaced. As part of this work the existing hoist has to be dismantled and, for structural reasons, the new vertical conveyor has to be brought into the building and installed in sections. To avoid interfering with the customer’s production operations during this, the work – including associated adaptation measures – has to be carried out over the New-Year period 2011/12. This short delivery deadline is a challenge for H+H.

As part of the reconstruction measures now beginning, a modified material flow system has to be implemented in the goods reception area of the company. With this opportunity the existing equipment will be partially modernised and, where necessary, reorganised.

The project as a whole includes numerous individual measures: path-measurement systems on the conveyor trolleys will be modernised, a vertical conveyor for the transport of customer-specific frames will be modernised (among other things with a winch drive motor with new cable drum and overload measurement system), roller tracks and chain conveyors will be dismantled, relocated and partially re-assembled, etc.

All these measures must be completed in a short time and without interfering with on-going operations. This requirement demands detailed planning and close co-ordination between all those involved in the project. In preparation, already during the planning phase detailed discussions were held to define the interfaces between the electrical, mechanical and control equipment. The planning provides that the work will be carried out is two stages, which should respectively be completed in October and November this year.

While H+H has been able to achieve a market-leading position in the sector of material flow in aluminium extrusion plants, the company has also always enjoyed above-average success with pallet conveyor equipment where heavy loads have to be transported using load carriers untypical of DIN standards. Reference projects in this field have included, among others, transport solutions for all the leading kitchen furniture suppliers, transport and handling technology in the store of the automotive company Elring Klinger and that of the adhesive label manufacturer Herman, where loads of up to 5 tonnes have to be transported rapidly and positioned exactly, as well as various others. Besides the aluminium branch (highly automated transport or handling systems for long objects and coils) H+H, as a niche supplier, has competence recognised throughout the branch in the market segments of furniture / plate blanks, paper, automotive, mechanical engineering, and systems for use in the temperature range –20°C to 300°C.

This company development, which ultimately targets the Europe-wide market, must be pushed still farther in the future. In the sector of internal logistical systems, particularly for aluminium extrusion plants, capacities remain not only fully occupied but will be extended further in due course. As regards pallet conveyor systems, in future H+H will concentrate even more distinctly on tasks in which loads of 1,500 kg and upwards have to be transported.

As a further measure for securing the company’s future, it has been decided to relocate production. Difficult machining jobs, pre-assemblies and test runs will still be carried out in the nearby modern workshops of the parent company. In addition, however, H+H can have recourse to a number of co-operation partners and specialist suppliers, with most of which the company has collaborated successfully for decades.

“We have recognised”, says Managing Director Georg Konti to explain the changes introduced, “that we are most successful of all in those fields in which we can offer our customers, most of which are owner-managed medium-sized enterprises, an above-average service. We want to use our strengths and develop them farther. On the other hand, where we would be just one competitor among many others, we should not squander our resources.”

The project relates to rationalisation investments in the dispatch area. Shipment by truck at Eberspächer is carried out in large racks specially designed for the purpose. Empty racks will be takes by a stacker from the truck trailer, placed on a chain conveyor system and transported fully automatically to the loading station.

The loaded racks will be moved back to the outer area of the shed. For this, among other things an electro-hydraulic lifting station and a corner transfer unit will be installed. From a clearing station the full racks will be loaded onto the truck trailer.

A special feature of the project, among others, is the very short time within which the work must be done. Assembly will start at the beginning of October this year (week 40), and must be completed by the end of October.

On three extrusion lines the Swedish company produces sections with an above-average degree of value-addition. The company’s strategy aims at further growth. For the automation of section handling and transport the general plan worked out by H+H for the entire extrusion plant is decisive.

A special feature of this project is that for the automatic material transport cranes work at three levels, one above another. In this area the automatic crane is equipped with safety devices, to give people access to the automatic crane area. This precaution is needed for the manual operation of the entry and exit station that will be newly built.

The start of operation is scheduled for mid-October 2011.

The renowned Spanish section producer Metales Extruidos SA has relocated its section production in Valladolid to a newly built extrusion plant. The new plant, with four extrusion lines and section machining and surface treatment facilities, has been equipped with a modern logistical system. In 2008 H+H supplied three automatic crane unuits as well as the associated transport management system. The management system also co-ordinates the material flow in peripheral outside plants such as ageing, packing, anodising and powder coating, further processing, etc.

The aim of this new investment is to extend and optimise the existing system. For this, links have to be provided to new production areas. Besides, during operation it became clear that additional buffer zones would have to be created.

To implement this the controls of the automatic crane units must now be modified correspondingly and the transport management system adapted to those changes. These measures should be completed by the end of October.