Stockholder Kicherer nears new high-bay warehouse completion

German steel distributor Kicherer is nearing completion of a new building at its site in Ellwangen, southwestern Germany, which will be equipped with special high-bay racking.

Completion of all work, which began one year ago, and the start of operations is expected for October, managing director Eberhard Frick tells Kallanish. The new high-bay racking will be used for mainly long products up to six metres length, and is supplied by Kasto, as are six existing storage facilities at Kicherer.

Kasto’s system will have a height of 15m and a length of 115m, with some 10,000 storage cassettes with a capacity of 3.4 tonnes each. It is laid out to give the most flexible availability, with carriage vehicles on rails transporting the goods at up to 180m/minute to 25 loading points.

The main intention of the investment is faster handling of products. Up to now, one truck needs to transit through seven workshops and needs 75 minutes to be charged. The target is to bring down the loading time to under one hour. The company has an annual turnover of 210,000 tonnes of flat and long products, “… and if this can be expanded remains to be seen” when the new workspace is operating normally, Frick says.