Pallet circulation plant in Sydney for manufacturing ... · magnet boxes with C profiles and wooden shuttering for lateral formwork plus wind-ows, doors and special components. Once

CPI – Concrete Plant International – 5 | 2009 www.cpi-worldwide.com152

PRECAST CONCRETE ELEMENTS

Thomas Strach, Avermann Maschinenfabrik GmbH, Germany

Although Sasso was founded in August1999, its owners had been gathering expe-rience in the precast element sector sincethe beginning of the eighties. The initial pro-duction location in Hoxton Park soon beca-me too small and extending this site was notan option. So Sasso expanded in 2004 bymoving both production and administrationto the current premises in Wetherhill Park.Until mid-2007, the production of wall ele-ments was carried out under simple conditi-ons and on production lines with a greatcommitment of human resources.

From August 2007, a new era began withthe up-to-date manufacturing capabilities ofa pallet circulation system. The groundworkand planning for the new, modern precastelement production facility commencedwith BAUMA 2004. The show was just theright environment for Sasso to be able toacquire comprehensive information con -cerning state-of-the-art technology. Im -mediate ly afterwards, a design contractwas awarded to Reymann Technik with thetask of devising a tailor-made solution andof preparing an invitation for tender rightup to its being awarded.

The main systems engineering and logisticspriorities were laid down after a study onsite. One of the most important require-ments was a one hundred percent post-pro-cessing of all elements with a wing-typesmoothing device. Another decisive criteri-on for Sasso was to have an absolutely re -liable local service, whether it be for a que-stion of procuring spare parts in Australiaor organising customer support from faraway Europe. The design concept, basedon a similar plant in Denmark, was put upfor tender in the spring of 2005. In the sub-sequent planning stage, the plant layoutwas again modified to permit an enlarge-ment option for manufacturing doublewalls.

At the end of September 2005, the con-tract for the circulation plant was awardedto Avermann with SAA as partner for thecontrol unit. The formwork system was to bedeveloped and supplied by Ratec. Therewas no need for a mixing plant at this pre -

liminary stage since a supply of concretecould be assured by ready-mix concreteproduction facilities belonging to the com-pany. A bucket conveyor from Dudik wasfirst to be filled by concrete mixing vehiclesand then be connected to a mixing plant as

Pallet circulation plant in Sydney for manufacturingfaçade and wall elements for industrial and commercial buildings

Avermann Maschinenfabrik GmbH & Co. KG, 49078 Osnabrueck, Germany

“Down Under” as well, the manufacture of precast concrete components is increasingly gaining in importance. Sasso is a young, upcomingmedium-sized business located in the metropolitan area of Sydney, Australia. The company offers an excellent example of the change-overfrom simple industrial production to a modern manufacturing facility.

View of the old production plant

Reymann Technik plant layout

05a-Fertigteile_en.qxp:Layout 1 14.09.2009 13:50 Uhr Seite 152

AVERMANNMaschinenfabrik GmbH & Co. KG

Avermann Maschinenfabrik GmbH & Co. KG

Lengericher Landstr. 35 • 49078 Osnabrück • Germany • Phone +49 5405 5050 • Fax +49 5405 6441 • [email protected]

WWW.AVERMANN.COM

circulation plant • shuttering • tilting tables • vibrating lines • pallets • special machines

Pallet circulation plant for the production

of façade and wall elements




Avermann plant layout

Groundwork for the new hall

New production hall

yet to be built at a later stage of expansion.Once the suppliers had been agreed upon,planning work was immediately commen-ced on the new hall. The existing produc -tion hall was too small for the new plant butpart of it was also to be incorporated. Dueto curing chamber capacity as well as asecond level for special elements, the hallextension necessitated a height of just on16 metres. The new production plant requi-red a surface area of 128 x 36 m; anothersection of approx. 1,350 m² was set asidefor preparing steel, inserting componentsand storage space.

Combining the existing hall with the newone, plus the practically seamless change-over planned from the previous line produc-tion to the circulation plant, presented allthose involved with major challenges.Thanks to outstanding organisation, the exi-sting production could keep running on twolines during the entire assembly time. In thelast two weeks before production start-up,one production line was dismantled, theremaining part of the circulation plantassembled and commissioned. No produc-tion stoppage occurred at any time despitethe confined spatial conditions.

Praise must also be given to the entire staffat Sasso. They were able to master the challenging change-over from traditionalproduction to a modern circulation manu-facturing system with practically no start-updifficulties and without delay. This elicitedthe highest regard from all firms involved.

Plant design concept

The plant was conceived and planned rat-her as a plant for double walls than for mas-sive walls. There is a natural sequence witha very uniform timing of the workflow. Themajority of the walls produced are for com-mercial or industrial hall structures and thusrelatively identical in the amount of workneeded. For special elements, there areseven work bays available – three atground level and four additional ones atthe curing chambers.

The curing chambers are dimensioned totake a total of 46 pallets sized 13.5 x 4.1m with a 40 cm element thickness. Thehead room clearance and the load bearingcapacity of the drying chamber and stora-ge and retrieval unit are set up for a maxi-mum element height of 120 cm. The plant’scapacity was estimated at a daily output ofapprox. 700 m². It had already be ascer-tained at the planning stage that the avera-ge cycle time of 16 minutes per pallet, inclu-ding all necessary intermediate stages,


www.cpi-worldwide.com CPI – Concrete Plant International – 5 | 2009


Filling the bucket conveyor with ready-mix trucks

Tilting bay control panel and label printer

Curing chamber with storage and retrieval unit

www.saa.at

We’ve set our Visions Higher

SAA Engineering

Master Computer System LEIT2000

Storage Management System STORE2000

Machine- and Robot Control systems

We take Responsibility forIT-Consulting & EngineeringProject Management & ImplementationInternational Service & Support

Intelligent Software Solutions for Machine- and Logistic Control

Gudrunstrasse 184/4A-1100 ViennaT +43-1-6414247-0*F +43-1-6414247-21E [email protected]

Automation Technology for Concrete Precasting Plants

isions Highe’ve set our

VVisWWe

gher

[email protected] ofE +43-1-6414247-21F

T +43-1-6414247-0*Vienna-1100A

asse 184/4rGudrunst

.saa.atww




could be maintained by using a storageand retrieval unit working from above.After the curing process, any formwork atta-ched is stripped off and laid on a cleaningunit set up at right angles to the direction ofproduction. This manual work is made con-siderably easier by a handling device forremoving the formwork.

The pallet is subsequently brought straightto the tilting bay. Elements are stored atSasso solely in an upright position allaround the inside of the hall in elementracks. After travelling sideways, the pallet iscleaned automatically and, should the nextwork bay be free, the operator can call upthe decontaminated pallet immediately.

The formwork tilts at an articulated joint andits height can be adjusted at both the follo-wing bays where the formwork is applied.The pallets are equipped on the tilting sidewith fitted formwork whose height can beadjusted. This side formwork can be positio-ned with the aid of a continuously variablehydraulic lifting device from 100 to 300mm and fixed. At both formwork work bays,all relevant production data is projectedonto the formwork surface by four LAP lasersystems.

For shuttering up, the operators can makeuse of a handling device from Ratec withwhose aid the sturdy formwork elementscan be positioned very rapidly and easilyon the pallets. Great importance was atta-ched to having as few parts as possible inthe stop end panel, which is a new develop-ment. Ratec named its system for lateral andlongitudinal formwork “Sasso Tower” afterits customer. This formwork is only availablein one length but can utilised variably insteps of 25 mm from 100 to 300 mm.

As a supplement to this, there is the well-proven RATEC PSV System based onmagnet boxes with C profiles and woodenshuttering for lateral formwork plus wind-ows, doors and special components. Oncethe formwork has been set up, the palletspass directly through a release agent spray-ing device to the three subsequent reinfor-cement work bays. Parallel to this on anot-her track, there are three buffer work baysfor more elaborate steel insertions. Matsthat have been prepared manually aremainly utilised for the steel work. The palletsthen travel transversely to the concretingbay. The bridge-type concrete spreader isfed via an intermediate silo by the bucketconveyor, which, in turn, is filled by con -crete mixing trucks outside the hall. The concrete spreader is set up for automa-tic operation with a screw discharge and

Formwork handling device

Manual formwork bay

Concrete spreader with smoothing device




weight measurement apparatus and canconcrete the entire pallet in two longitudinalsweeps.

Compaction is mainly carried out by meansof a vibrating compactor perfectly fine-tuned for massive walls. Special parts ofmore than 20 cm thickness are compactedby using an HF external vibrator attachedto vibration frame. The surface of all com-pacted elements receives a preliminary refi-ning from a tandem smoothing device builtonto the concrete spreader bridge.

On the subsequent journey to the curingchamber section, the track system dividesthe elements into two groups. Conventionalwall elements are conducted straightthrough the drying chamber into a precu-ring tunnel under the smoothing bay with -out being touched by the storage andretrieval unit. Special elements, on the otherhand, are placed into storage in appropria-te receptacles by the storage and retrievalunit or else are transported to the secondlevel for further processing.

There is room in the tunnel for up to fourpallets. These automatically travel further ina waiting line, at the end of which a bay islocated for lifting them to the smoothingbays on the upper floor. If a working spacehas become free on the smoothing level, allpallets advance by one bay and the lastpallet from the precuring tunnel is transpor-ted with the lifting device to the smoothingplatform. The average retention period for the palletsin the tunnel is approximately two hours so

that they have already had sufficient dryingtime for their concrete surface to be smoot-hed. If only simple elements are beingmanufactured, congestion can not be avoi-ded due to the short cycle times. In thiscase, the freshly concrete pallets are pla-ced into intermediate storage in the dryingchamber and conducted to the smoothingbay after precuring. This simple but effec -tive arrangement with the smoothing plat-form means that practically all transportmovements between the concreting bayand smoothing bays can be carried outusing friction wheels. The storage andretrieval unit is not burdened down withmoving elements in and out of storageunnecessarily.

The work cycle above the tunnel roofing ismanaged by two smoothing bridges. AtSasso, the level of quality desired is attai-ned by dint of two smoothing sequences foreach pallet. At the end of the four smoot-hing work bays, the storage and retrievalunit is once again on hand to insert the pal-lets in the drying chamber for their final har-dening. It is worth mentioning another spe-cial feature that comes into play beforethey are thus stored: namely that the ele-ments already possess so much basicstrength after the smoothing process thatthe formwork can, to a large extent, beremoved.

The formwork is laid onto a transportingdevice running at right angles to becleaned by machine and fed into the circuitagain via conveyors where it can onceagain be immediately reutilised. This gene-

Transverse travel under concrete spreader and vibratory compactor




rates a particular advantage in terms ofinvestment as the formwork is not retainedin the curing chamber but is rather put backto work again after a short turn-aroundtime.

The entire control unit was developed bySAA. Their Leit2000 system controls theplant’s logistics and enables the pallet cir-culation plant to be tailor-made for the cus-tomer and managed in a very flexible way.

The various manufacturing specificationsfor different wall types are stored in flowcharts in which the production sequence isconfigured in stages. To take just a fewexamples, there is defined: which line haspriority in the reinforcement section; whet-her the post-processing platform should tra-vel on the drying chamber roof; whetherand for how long precuring should takeplace before travelling to the smoothingline; and, last but not least, the required dry-ing time. The flow charts can be adapteddynamically by the production manager onthe strength of experience and to thedemands at hand, or expanded to accom-modate new wall types.

The work flow sequences of the storageand retrieval unit are tuned to preset priori-ties in an optimum way so that maximumthrough-put rates can be achieved. At theformwork bays, all pallet and element planspertaining to the production sequencegenerated by the work preparation unit arealways printed out by default. A label prin-ter at the tilting bay automatically providesthe pallets with their allocated element dataso that mix-ups can be ruled out.

Precuring tunnel and smoothing bays

Smoothing bay with wing-type smoothing devices

Formwork cleaning unit with transporting device SAA control centre


Go upcrete®

upcrete

upcrete

upcrete upcrete® UBS work station system

upcrete® UCI pump inlet

Variable: elements up to 12,000 mm long and from 60 to 500 mm wide can be used.

Output: 25,000 – 30,000 m2/year.

Manpower requirements: 4 – 5 employees per shift.

Cost-effective: 0,55 hours/m2 of production output is possible*. Let us conduct your individual profitability analysis!

Telephone + 49 62 05 94 07 - 29

* Compared to the manufacture of sandwich elements with a

conventional form at a rate of 0.65 – 1.10 hours/m2.

Now available as a complete system!

RATEC GMBH, Karlsruher Straße, D-68766 Hockenheim

Phone +49-6205-9407-29, Fax +49-6205-9407-30

[email protected], www.ratec.org, www.upcrete.com

Go upcrete®

uGo

®creteup

stem




As was already mentioned at the beginning, one of the factors inthe decision was perfect service and support for the plant. Whenthe early shift begins at Sasso, the late shift is just about finishing up(10 pm) in Europe. The SAA 24 hour hotline, open seven days aweek, guarantees permanent support. Both in the domain of controlsystems as well as with control technology, engineers are on callround the clock - but can still get enough sleep…. since you cancount the telephone calls from Sydney on one hand. Once again,this has to be as yet unexpressed praise for Sasso and an extreme-ly well-running production plant. �

Control panel – storage and retrieval unit

An example of an commercial hall supplied and assembled by Sasso




FURTHER INFORMATION

Sasso Precast Concrete33-41 Cowpasture RoadWetherill Park NSW, 2164, AustraliaT +61 2 96049444F +61 2 [email protected]

Avermann Maschinenfabrik GmbH & Co. KGLengericher Landstrasse 3549078 Osnabrueck, GermanyT +49 5405 5050F +49 5405 [email protected]

RATEC GmbH Karlsruher Strasse 32 68766 Hockenheim, GermanyT +49 6205 940729 F +49 6205 940730 [email protected]

saa engineering gmbhGudrunstrasse 184/41100 vienna, AustriaT +43 1 64142470F +43 1 [email protected]

DUDIK International Kuebelbahnen- und Transportanlagen GmbHMackstrasse 2188348 Bad Saulgau, GermanyT +49 7581 8877 F +49 7581 4692 [email protected]

LAP GmbH Laser ApplikationenZeppelinstr. 2321337 Lueneburg, GermanyT +49 4131 951195F +49 4131 [email protected]


Documents

Pallet circulation plant in Sydney for manufacturing ... · magnet boxes with C profiles and wooden shuttering for lateral formwork plus wind-ows, doors and special components. Once