One Pick from a Floor Stack
A saw operator asks for a size that sits at the bottom of a pile. The crane driver and a slinger now work through the stack from the top.
- The slinger fixes chains or straps to the top bundle by hand.
- The crane lifts it and sets it down on another pile or on free floor.
- Both repeat for every bundle above the one the saw needs.
- After cutting, the moved bundles often stay where they landed, and the next pick starts from a different pile.
The bottom of a floor stack also tends to hold the oldest stock, because new deliveries go on top. First in, first out is hard to keep. People also stand near suspended loads and beside piles that can shift when a bundle is pulled.
What Changes After the Move
The work of finding and freeing a bundle disappears. The comparison below covers the daily tasks that change.
|
Task |
Floor stack with overhead crane |
Gantry store |
|
Reaching a bundle at the bottom |
Lift off and set down every bundle above it |
The gantry lifts that storage unit only |
|
Slinging |
Chains or straps attached by hand for each lift |
Only when a bundle enters or leaves at the loading station |
|
People in the storage area |
Slinger and crane driver work among the piles |
Nobody inside the rack area while the gantry works |
|
Finding stock |
From memory, tags or a walk through the yard |
The WMS shows every unit by material and location |
|
Stock rotation |
Oldest stock stays under newer bundles |
First in, first out set as a WMS rule |
|
Height used |
Height of a stable pile |
Racks up to 7 to 8 m (23 to 26 ft) |
Your Crane Keeps One Job
An existing overhead crane or forklift still delivers and collects material, but only at the loading station. Inside the rack area, all lifting is done by the gantry.
- Goods in: the crane or a forklift sets the incoming bundle, whole or split, into an empty storage unit at the loading station. The gantry stores the unit.
- Goods out: the gantry brings the unit to the loading station. The crane lifts the bundle out, or the operator takes single lengths by hand.
- With a double-deck loading station, two storage units are at the station at once: one being emptied, one queued behind it.
Case: 6 m Profiles Taken Off the Floor
One plant makes aluminum heat-sink profiles for the automotive industry. Its 6 m stock lay in floor stacks. Lower layers were only reachable after the loads above them were moved, and the workshop was hard to keep in order.
We replaced the stacks with a gantry store: a 5.6 m (18.4 ft) gantry over 65 m (213 ft) of cantilever racks. A forklift carries each loaded unit, over 600 kg (1,320 lbs), from the loading station straight to production. In this project, storing and retrieving now takes one operator instead of at least two, and no restacking is needed.
Planning the Changeover
The slab and the building height decide whether and how a hall can take a gantry store. The order below is how a changeover usually runs.
- Site survey: hall length, width and clear height, crane positions, and the slab under the planned rails.
- Stock profile: material types, lengths, bundle weights, the number of sizes and the picks per shift.
- Layout and quotation: we draw the racks, gantry and loading station for your hall.
- Production: 60 to 90 days, including a trial assembly in our factory.
- Installation: rails first, then the gantry, then the racks. Plan where the floor stock waits while each section is built.
- Commissioning and handover: a load test under working conditions, then operator and maintenance training.
No material may be stored within 1 m (3.3 ft) of the rack area. Gantry rails can sit flush in the slab or on top of it. Plan for a slab rated around 1.5 to 1.6 t/m² (310 to 330 lb/ft²) distributed; that is the range of typical projects.
Key Specifications
|
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 and 5,000 kg for 12 m material |
|
Capacity |
Material length |
6 m, 9 m or 12 m (19.7, 29.5 or 39.4 ft) |
|
Dimensions |
Rack height / gantry height |
Up to 7 to 8 m (23 to 26 ft) / up to 10 m (32.8 ft) |
|
Operation |
Gantry travel speed |
Up to 25 m/min (82 ft/min) |
|
Operation |
Rack types |
Fixed cantilever racks, or mobile racks on floor rails |
|
Area |
Clear zone around the rack area |
1 m (3.3 ft) |
Ratings apply to bundles supported over the whole length of the storage unit. Your quotation states if the unit weight is included in the rating.
When Floor Storage Can Stay
Not every floor stack needs automation. A gantry store makes sense when many sizes are picked often.
- A few sizes, picked as whole bundles once or twice a day: a heavy-duty roll-out cantilever rack served by your crane removes restacking at lower cost. We recommend those racks up to about 5 m (16.4 ft) high.
- Material stored outdoors: this page covers indoor systems.
- Stock needed during a power cut: the gantry has no hand-operated mode, and people may not enter the rack area to lift stock out.
Mixed bars, tubes and flats can also go on a roll-out long stock rack. Specifications of the hand-cranked versions are on the CK Metal Storage Solutions main website.
FAQ
Send Us Your Floor Stack Details
With these details, we can return a layout drawing and a price for your hall:
- A photo and the dimensions of the area where stock is stacked now
- Hall clear height, crane capacity and crane hook height
- Material types, lengths, the heaviest bundle and the number of sizes
- Picks per shift, and the saws or machines the material goes to
Request a layout to replace your floor stacks.
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