| Round-the-clock availability |
KBK cranes serve machinery for magazine production
The Hubert Burda Media Group had the replenishment system for the gatherer-stitcher drums at its Offenburgmagazine printing facility modernised. The printed sheets which are collected into stacks are now handled by eleven suspension cranes from the KBK crane construction kit supplied by Demag Cranes & Components. In combination with DC chain hoists, the KBK installations make it possible to achieve short cycle times. In continuous operation around the clock.
With its roots in the printing business, the 100-year old family-owned Hubert Burda Media Group has become one of the largest media enterprises in Germany. Today, the corporate portfolio includes more than 250 magazines in Germany and other countries, numerous Internet and radio interests, TV productions and direct marketing. Hubert Burda Media is also active in the digital business and digital lifestyle sectors.
The international media group has more than 7,000 employees. Its printing facilities are located in Offenburg (Germany, 2 plants), Vieux-Thann (France) and Bratislava (Slovakia).
Convenient handling
The Offenburg printing facility operates 24 hours per day, even at the weekends. Its finishing output capacity is sufficient to produce 50 million magazines per month.
The sheets of paper are bound into stacks at the rotary presses. They are then fed to the 4 print finishing machines.
The use of the handling system is justified, since the stacks weigh up to 120 kilograms.
Burda Druck used to work with a fully automatic system and larger batch sizes. When this system had been in operation for a number of years, malfunctions started to occur and more maintenance had to be carried out.
For this reason, the management decided to change the stack feed system. They selected the KBK crane construction kit and DC chain hoists by Demag Cranes & Components. The systems installed by Demag make it possible to place the stacks in up to 10 feeders. Three KBK suspension cranes are in operation at each of three of the machines, two at the fourth. Each crane is fitted with two DC 1chain hoists. Together, both chain hoists on each crane support a set of tongs, which serves as a load handling attachment.It is used by the worker to pick up the 1.2 m-long stacks, clamp and press them together and place them in the machines.
The chain hoists each have a load capacity of 100 kilograms. They are controlled in parallel and operated by means of the switches on the tong handles. The operator can guide the load and transfer it to the machine with ease.
Shorter cycle times required
The customer expects the KBK system to achieve shorter cycle times when the cranes pick up the stacks from the delivery pallets and then transport them to and place them inside the machines. The DC chain hoist is ideally suited to the operating requirements with many lifting and braking motions, since it offers regenerative braking and therefore does not need to utilise its mechanical brake much.
Demag also fulfilled the customer’s request to supply the electric current for the chain hoists and the compressed air for the pneumatically actuated tongs via the KBK system. In this solution, both media are guided to the chain hoists and the load handling attachment through a hose.
However, further specifications had to be considered when designing the KBK installations. In addition to providing the required load capacity, the low suspension height available to install the cranes also had to be considered in the planning. This limitation resulted from the fact that, on the one hand, the steel superstructure already existed, and on the other hand, a certain lifting height is necessary in order to pick up material from high stacks.
Demag also meets the customer’s required installation availability rate of almost 100 percent. In the unlikely event that a crane were to fail, all of the feeders could still be supplied with stacks of paper due to the high level of reserve system capacity.
High availability and simple handling
Besides the ergonomic benefits, the KBK crane construction kit used in combination with the stacking tongs also provides high availability, simple handling and ease of operation. The operators are satisfied.
The contract was also awarded to Demag Cranes & Components as Burda Druck had already gained good experience with a KBK system monorail. The customer had also compared the value for money of the Demag solution with quotations from other suppliers.
About Demag Cranes & Components
Demag Cranes & Components GmbH based in Wetter/ Ruhr is a subsidiary of Demag Cranes AG and a supplier of industrial cranes and crane components for material flow, logistics and industrial drive applications. Services, such as spare parts, maintenance and refurbishment services, are another key element of the Group’s business activities. With more than 650,000 “Demag” brand electric cranes and hoists for industrial applications in operation, Demag Cranes & Component has the largest installed base worldwide and operates in 20 countries with some 4,900 employees.
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Contact:
Corporate Communications
Demag Cranes & Components
Mr Christoph Kreutzenbeck
Tel. +49 (0) 2335 / 92-7333
