WESTCORE Europe, CH-Volketswil
In 2013 Westcore Europe acquired the office and production building of 27,000 m² from Siemens Schweiz AG, which is situated in Volketswil, an economically important sub-market of Zurich. Westcore Europe, following the acquisition, developed a business plan that included the conversion of the building into a multi-tenant object according to international quality standards. Wegenstein Architekten AG was commissioned with the architectural planning.
Requirements
Tegro AG, based in Schwerzenbach, is a provider of do-it-yourself and industrial products. The core business includes, among other things, autoclaves range, car and bicycle accessories. Tegro AG intended to expand its storage capacities and took over the office and production building with high-rack storage, which had been vacant for four years.
Gilgen was commissioned by the owner of Westcore Europe and partly by the new tenant Tegro to modernize the high-bay warehouse. Hugo Fritschi, today Gilgen Logistics, had delivered the four stacker cranes and the conveyor system for pallets in the high bay storage. In order to obtain a comprehensive overview of the state of the automated high-bay storage system, the plant was subjected to a survey.
Logistics solution
The retrofitting project, which was discussed in advance with the SUVA, should bring the warehouse storage system to current technical standards, as well as increase the operational safety. The following measures were intended:
- Completely replace control and safety technology, for 4 RBG and conveyor technology of the pre-zones on both floors
- Reprogram the software of the programmable controllers (Simatic S7-PLC), as well as for new control panels (Simatic KTP)
- Provide new three-phase drive systems (SEW) for all three axles
- Designing positioning systems for lifting and traction drives by means of laser measurement, with simultaneous upgrade to the semi-automatic operation of the stacker cranes
- RBG components, such as rope pulleys, drive and impellers, energy chains can be specifically replaced
- Repair or replace the hydraulic units and components of the lifting tables in the pre-zones
- Retrofit the conveyors on the upper floor with nets for preventing accessibility and with appropriate warning signs
- Increase access safety in the storage zone by securing between the aisles by means of grating as well as escape door monitoring
