Seven Codes in Seven Finishes Is 49 Items
Take one casement system. Frame, sash, mullion, transom and a few glazing beads come to six or seven profile codes. Sell it in white, two greys, cream and three wood-grain foils, and that single system is 49 stock items.
Most fabricators carry more than one system. One profile supplier alone offers over 30 colors from stock.
On a crane-served cantilever rack, every item wants its own level. Four leftover bars of a golden oak sash take the same arm space as a full pack of white frame. So people stack. Anthracite goes on top of white, foiled faces rub, and the saw operator walks the aisle reading labels.
In a gantry store, the limit is the number of storage units, not the number of rack levels. Small units mean more of them in the same hall.
Narrow Units for Colors, Wide Units for White
Two completed CK projects show the range we work in. The narrow unit comes from a mobile-rack store with 192 positions. The wide one comes from a fixed-rack aluminium extrusion store with 200 positions.
|
Item |
Narrow unit (typical project) |
Wide unit (typical project) |
|
End section (W × H) |
400 × 300 mm (15.7 × 11.8 in) |
700 × 500 mm (27.6 × 19.7 in) |
|
Unit length |
6,600 mm (260 in) |
6,100 mm (240 in) |
|
Load per storage unit |
500 kg (1,100 lbs) |
1,000 kg (2,200 lbs) |
|
Rack type |
Mobile racks, 16 units per rack row |
Fixed racks, 10 levels per double-sided rack |
|
Storage units in the project |
192 |
200 |
|
Use in a window plant |
One colored or foiled code per unit |
Full packs of fast-moving white profiles |
Unit length is the bar length plus about 50 mm (2 in) at each end. We size the units from your profile list.
Nothing stops you from mixing the two. For many window shops we would draw exactly that. White frame goes in wide units, colors in narrow ones, and reinforcement steel in its own group.
The Reinforcement Comes Out With the Profile
A uPVC frame is no use at the saw without its steel. The steel goes into the profile chamber after cutting, and the system supplier specifies which steel belongs to which profile.
The cutting batch goes to the warehouse management system (WMS). The gantry then fetches the profile units for that batch and the unit holding the matching reinforcement. The loading station has two decks, so a second unit can stand ready while the operator takes bars from the first.
The operator counts out what the batch needs and sends each unit home with whatever is left. The WMS keeps the count per code and color.
First-in, first-out allocation and stock-age alerts are standard WMS functions. Colors that nobody calls for tie up cash and rack space, so these two alerts matter more here than in a steel shop. Location rules are agreed for each project. Putting the heavy reinforcement units on the lower levels is one example.
Specifications
Design limits first. Where a value says "typical", it was measured on a finished CK project.
|
Group |
Item |
Value |
|
Capacity |
Load per storage unit |
Up to 5,000 kg (11,000 lbs); usually 3,000 kg (6,600 lbs) for 6 m material |
|
Capacity |
Material length |
6 m, 9 m or 12 m (19.7, 29.5 or 39.4 ft) stores |
|
Dimensions |
Storage unit length |
Bar length plus about 50 mm (2 in) at each end |
|
Dimensions |
Gantry height |
Up to 10 m (32.8 ft) |
|
Dimensions |
Rack height |
Up to 7 to 8 m (23 to 26 ft) |
|
Operation |
Gantry travel / lift |
Up to 25 m/min (82 ft/min) / 6 to 8 m/min (20 to 26 ft/min), typical |
|
Operation |
Mobile rack travel |
8 m/min (26 ft/min), typical |
|
Operation |
Positioning |
±2 mm with mobile racks, ±5 mm with fixed racks, typical |
|
Control |
Software |
WMS with location management, first-in first-out allocation, stock counts, reorder and stock-age alerts, barcode handhelds |
|
Control |
Panel language |
English and Chinese as standard; other languages from your translation |
|
Construction |
Finish |
Powder coating as standard; paint or hot-dip galvanizing on request |
Load ratings apply to material lying inside the storage unit. Each quotation states whether the unit weight is part of the rating.
When We Would Not Sell You One
A plant that makes white windows from two or three systems does not need this. Packs go in and come out whole, and a crane-served profile storage rack does the job for far less money.
The same goes for a small shop with a low roof. Below about 5 m (16.4 ft) of clear height, a motorized roll-out cantilever rack brings each level out at floor height. No gantry needed.
One more limit. In a power cut the gantry stops, and it cannot be moved by hand. Nobody may go into the rack area to pull bars out, so plan the store with that in mind.
The gantry store makes sense when the color range keeps growing and batches change several times a shift. Also when the saw waits while someone looks for a code.
Next to the Saw Line
The simplest setup has no link at all: the operator lifts bars from the unit onto the double mitre saw infeed by hand. If you want the loading station joined to your saw or profile machining center, we confirm the interface for that saw make and model.
The gantry runs on floor rails, either set into the slab or bolted on top of it. We check the slab before anything else, then mark the rail lines, fit the rails, put up the gantry and finish with the racks.
Keep people out of open aisles while the gantry works. An aisle-entry alarm is available as an option. If your window software or ERP should talk to the WMS, we look at that connection with your IT team before quoting.
Delivery and Certification
Expect 60 to 90 days from order. That includes a trial assembly and function tests in our factory before anything is packed. A factory engineer then installs and commissions the store on site. Warranty is 1 year and can be extended.
We are CE certified and hold ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 certificates. The racks are a patented design (China utility model patents). A wider project overview is on the CK Metal Storage Solutions main site.
FAQ
Request a Window Profile Store Layout
We need five things to draw a layout and price it:
- Your systems, the number of profile codes, and every color and foil you stock
- Bar lengths, pack sizes and the heaviest pack, reinforcement included
- How many storage units you need today, and in five years
- Hall length, width and clear height, with a photo of the area
- Batches per shift, and which saws and machining centers the store feeds
Request a window profile store layout and quote.
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