Automated long goods warehouse saves space and time

At Morsink Constructie in Enter, aalbers|farina from Renswoude recently installed an automatic long goods warehouse for the storage of pipes and tubular profiles. We asked director/owner Erik Morsink, who founded his company in 1998, how he likes it, now employs more than 25 people and is an important supplier of steel constructions for commercial and residential construction.

"We started out as a manufacturer of steel structures," Erik Morsink says of the early years. "Then you have to think of constructions for industrial halls and utility and residential construction. You can also come to us for stairs, landings and balustrades. As long as it's made of steel. Soon we outgrew our starting location. So around 2003 we moved to our current location in Enter. And we are currently expanding there as well."

Versatile operations

At Morsink, various operations are performed on steel profiles, beams and plates. What are they? Morsink says: "Cutting off of course, for which we have a semi-automatic drilling/sawing line. But we also have a punching/cutting line and a CNC controlled plasma cutting table on which we cut plates from 10 to 40 mm thick. And of course we do a lot of welding. This is done manually with MIG/MAG. Of course we are sometimes asked if we also do robot welding, but we do not process series. Everything here is custom-made, so robots don't make much sense. Some 100 tons of steel pass through the company every week, so we are a serious player within the building industry in the field of steel constructions. This is also because we have our own engineering department that can design halls and staircases, including the associated strength calculations. In this context, we also like to think along with our clients at an early stage. What someone comes up with is not always efficient to produce. By sometimes making small adjustments, you can often gain a lot in that area."

New warehouse

"Initially, the long goods were stored in a traditional warehouse that was not that high and took up quite a lot of space," Morsink says of the former logistics situation. "However, we were expanding the hall as well as purchasing a new large machine. With the old long goods warehouse then, in fact, the extra space gained was full again right away. So if we bought a new warehouse right away, we could gain in logistics and floor space. After a market study we ended up at aalbers|farina. This company is fairly close by, is Dutch and came up with a good proposal. Both technically and financially."

Sister company

aalbers|farina is a sister company of the well-known Dutch metal company aalbers|wico in which the storage systems were in fact developed from its own need for a more efficient way to store sheet material and long goods. Meanwhile, the aalbers|farina program counts several automated plate and long goods warehouses in various sizes. With system heights of up to 12 meters, this allows production companies to make substantial savings in square meters that can be used for production. The automatic warehouses are operated via a touch screen. In addition to the warehouses, aalbers|farina also supplies, for example, the 'Sheetliner' plate transport systems that enable a complete integration and linkage between a plate warehouse and a punching/cutting machine or a laser, plasma and/or gas cutting machine.

Less physically demanding

How do you like aalbers|farina's new automatic long goods warehouse LM Compact in practice? "To begin with, everything is now stored much more compactly," says an enthusiastic Erik Morsink. "Because the warehouse is almost 6 meters high and has 17 storage drawers, it claims much less floor space than before. The operation is also very simple. Via the touch screen you key in the desired steel profile and it appears automatically on the output side. Because we have placed the warehouse right next to the sawing/drilling line, an employee only has to move the long goods, without having to lift them in height, by a meter and they are on the roller conveyor. So in addition to the logistical gains, this method of handling is also much less physically demanding for staff. I can use any construct-
ie company that works with long cargo material therefore only warmly recommend this logistics solution."