Optimum furniture transport with Kraft

Customer

The company G. Kraft Maschinenbau GmbH has been in existence since 1816 and can thus look back on a heritage of more than 200 years at its location in Rietberg, Germany. The North Rhine-Westphalian company started out as a forge for constructing carts. The family business developed and expanded into an international manufacturer of specialist machinery with several production sites. Kraft specialises in the manufacture of production machinery as well as material handling and storage systems for intralogistics.

Requirement

Wood is the basic material used in furniture production. The furniture and bedroom lines of the end customer are based on different types of wood from which items such as base frames, doors, handles and struts are made. To feed the production lines, G. Kraft supplied a transfer carriage to distribute cross-grain panels. Equipped with electric control, spacers and bumpers, the transfer carriage travels at 60 m/min on floor rails. Six Demag DRS wheel blocks were used to support the transfer carriage and allow it to travel on the floor rails. Four non-driven DRS 125 wheel blocks and two DRS 200 were originally installed.

The end customer would like to replace the two DRS 125 flangeless wheel blocks with wheel blocks of the same type with flanges in order to completely eliminate the risk of side to side movement when the carriage moves. The accuracy of the transfer carriage when approaching the production lines is thus increased.

Solution

One of the end customer’s employees was able to replace the wheel blocks. As planned, some of the rollers on the support surface of the transfer carriage were first removed to expose the DRS 125s underneath. The wheel blocks were actually replaced in almost no time. To do this, the DRS was removed from the travel unit and replaced by the new wheel block with flange, which was bolted in place. The employee was pleasantly surprised by the quick and simple replacement of the wheel blocks.
 
With improved traction as well as its usual speed and reliability, the transfer carriage can now distribute the cross-grain panels onto the production roller conveyors again. The carriage travels precisely and with improved contact to the floor rail, so that the bedroom furniture can be manufactured with no delay.

Interview with Jürgen Sandmeier (Design Manager, Mechanical Design)
G. Kraft Maschinenbau GmbH

Demag: Mr Sandmeier, why did you prefer the Demag solution?

Jürgen Sandmeier: Since we had always used our own solutions for guiding our carriages in the past, we wanted to try something new with the Demag solution. The idea was to use an existing system/unit rather than have to design one in detail from scratch.

Demag: What are the advantages of using Demag products?

Jürgen Sandmeier: First and foremost, the ease of wheel block assembly. The wheel blocks are very easy to install and can be quickly replaced for maintenance. Furthermore, the finished systems save valuable time in the design phase, as the designer engineer no longer needs to spend time on specifying the flanged wheels or travel wheels. In this case, the designer “only” needs to calculate the load of the individual wheel blocks and then select the appropriate set.

Demag: What has been the impression of the plant employees so far?

Jürgen Sandmeier: During a visit to our end customer, it quickly became apparent that the maintenance staff were very impressed with the new wheel sets and they gave us consistently positive feedback.

Special features

The Demag wheel block system (DRS) is a highly versatile travel wheel system and, with its eight carefully selected sizes, offers solutions with load capacities of up to 40 t per wheel. The large selection of travel wheels and special travel wheel designs enable them to be adapted to a wide variety of travel rails and operating conditions – all ready-to-install and cost-effective.

Demag industrial drive technology offers complete solutions with a wide range of possibilities for combination and adaptation. Our motors, gearboxes, frequency inverters and wheel blocks can be used as individual components or in combination as a complete travel unit with various connection options. Keeping your business on the move.