Automated Bar Storage For Saw Cutting With Gantry Robot

The cut itself is rarely the slow part. The slow part is everything between two jobs.

In a crane-served store, the saw operator calls for 50 mm round in 42CrMo4. Someone finds the bundle. It is under two others, so those come off first. A slinger hooks up, the crane lifts, and the bundle lands at the saw. If the crane is busy unloading a truck, the saw stands.

Every change of size repeats that trip. A department that cuts a lot of different sizes spends a large part of the shift on it.

A gantry store does not make the trip faster. It moves the trip into the time when the saw is already cutting.

One Saw Job, Step by Step

 

The job list goes into the warehouse management system (WMS), which knows where every grade and size is stored. The gantry puts the unit for job 1 on the upper deck of the loading station.

 

The operator takes the bars that job 1 needs and loads the saw. While the blade is in the cut, the gantry goes back into the racks and returns with the unit for job 2. It lands on the lower deck.

 

Job 1 finishes. The gantry lifts unit 1, with whatever bars are left in it, and puts it back in its location. The WMS adjusts the count, and the operator starts on unit 2.

 

How long one cycle takes depends on your store length, rack height and the distance to the saw. We work it out from your layout and job list. We do not quote a standard number.

 

 

Connecting the Loading Station to Your Saw

 

Saws differ. Infeed height, magazine type and roller table length change from one model to the next. That is why we confirm the interface for each saw make and model rather than promise a universal fit.

 

The simplest version needs no interface. The operator moves bars from the storage unit to the saw infeed, which works with any saw.

A step up is to place the loading station right beside the saw's infeed magazine or roller table. The bars then travel a metre or two, not across the hall.

 

Feeding two or more saws from one store is possible in principle. Whether it needs a second loading station or a shared one is assessed per project. Send us the saw make, model and infeed drawing, and the interface becomes part of the quoted layout.

 

 

Remnants After Cutting

 

Ask a saw department where its remnants are. The answer is often "leaning against the wall", "in the scrap bin" or "back in the rack, somewhere".

 

Here the bars left after a job never leave their storage unit, and the unit goes back with them. The WMS knows how many are in it. Rules such as a minimum length worth returning, or a separate remnant unit per grade, can be configured and are agreed per project.

 

One practical point. Units are as long as a full bar plus about 50 mm (2 in) at each end. A 600 mm end piece rattles around in a 6,100 mm unit, so short pieces are better kept together in a unit of their own.

 

Design limits first. A value marked "typical" was measured on a finished CK project.

Load ratings apply to bars lying inside the storage unit. Each quotation states whether the unit weight is part of the rating.

If you cut ten sizes in long runs, a gantry store is the wrong spend. A hand-cranked roll-out bar rack beside the saw costs far less, and every level is reachable from the floor.

Very heavy bundles in small numbers are another case. A roll-out cantilever rack rated for heavy bundles, served by the crane you already have, may be all you need.

And if the saw has to keep running through a power cut, think twice. The gantry cannot be moved by hand, and nobody may go into the rack area to get bars out.

The store earns its place in the opposite case. Think many grades, short jobs, a crane shared with goods-in, and unused hall height above 5 m (16.4 ft).

We look at the floor before we draw anything final. The gantry runs on rails, which are either set into the slab or mounted on its surface.

The build goes in this order: slab check, rail lines marked out, rails fitted, gantry installed, racks last. Leave room in front of the saw infeed for the loading station. Nobody goes into the rack area while the gantry is working; an aisle-entry alarm is available as an option. The control panel reads in English and Chinese, and we load other languages from your translation.

Lead time is 60 to 90 days, with a trial assembly and function tests in our factory first. A factory engineer installs and commissions the store, and the warranty is 1 year, extendable. We are CE certified, hold ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 certificates, and the racks are a patented design (China utility model patents). You can watch videos of the gantry store running on our main site.

Send us the following and we will come back with a layout drawing and a price:

• The grades, diameters and sections you cut, and how many sizes you stock
• Bar lengths and your heaviest bundle
• Saw make, model and infeed drawing for each saw on the line
• Jobs per shift, and roughly how many bars per job
• A hall drawing with clear height, crane positions and floor details

Request a saw-line storage layout and quote.

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