Plants for generations
Customers from all over Europe order their high-quality reinforcing steel, structural steel and rebars from the German Badische Stahlwerke GmbH (BSW). When it comes to loading a wide variety of steel forms onto barges and rail cars at their headquarters in Kehl, the electric steel plant has been relying on TRUNINGER solutions for more than three decades.
Lifting magnet systems as a long-term investment
BSW has been using a high-end solution "Made in Switzerland" for more than 30 years. Thousands of tons of steel are stored in the huge open-air warehouse in the town of Kehl in Baden, Germany, which is connected to the company’s high-tech steel plant: half of the rebars of various lengths, billets and slabs in store are drawn into reinforcing steel on site while the other half is sold on to other processors.
"These plants are capital goods," emphasizes Felix Truninger, one of the two Managing Directors of Swiss-based TRUNINGER AG. "In principle, the plants don't wear out," adds Co-Managing Director Rolf Truninger, " if anything, they become technologically outdated."
Mobile and stationary, flexible and reliable
Two mobile excavators are at work in the so-called “Flexilager”. They move billets that weigh 2.5 tons each to turn them into a bundle of reinforcing steel 12 to 20 meters long in the steel mill. These excavators are used for loading railroad cars.
The gravity champion at BSW is the stationary system in the warehouse which is spanned by a crane: When loading onto ships, the two crane systems can move up to four bundles of reinforcing steel per lift into the belly of the barges at anchor. Besides enormous hoisting power, the high weight of around 10 tons and the many layers of material requires a deep magnetic field and the use of telescopic crossbeams: the coils, which can be up to 20 meters long, are lifted with extended telescopic arms. Shorter coils of 12 meters in length are lifted accordingly with retracted arms. This brings the bending of the lifted material to low values and makes it safe for handling.
But in addition to bundles, the crane system handles billets and slabs, as well. "Reliability and flexibility are the pivotal criteria for our lifting solution," explains Andreas Volkert, Managing Director of Badische Stahlwerke. "We are able to handle coils, billets and slabs – with just one system!" To do this, operators can change the magnet without having to leave the cabin of their crane because the change from the telescopic spreader beam to the lifting device for billets and slabs is radio-controlled and automatic. For maximum safety, the automatic coupling is secured both electronically and mechanically.
This way, BSW can use TRUNINGER’s lifting magnet system to handle all steel products they store. In the near future, the system is to be replaced by a modern lifting solution, which will again cover the entire spectrum of material handled. It is, after all, several decades old and has paid itself off many times.
