CPT International 4/2019

Safety has top priority
at Fondium. All front
loaders are equipped
with the Safety-Light
4Plus from Still.
With their own charg ing
points, the li-ion industrial
trucks are immediately
available in the
departments – eliminating
long paths and
long waiting times for
the batteries to charge.
The RX 70 is a key vehicle for internal
transports in the melting shop.
Schaffhausen, Switzerland. GF and Fondium,
however, have continued to work
together in some segments. Manuel
Veser, Manager of Fondium’s Logistics
Center in Singen, is confident: “With
our production capacity and sales of
about 180,000 tonnes per year we can
produce large serial numbers – with a
total of more than 12,500,000 ready-to-install
castings – thanks to our
computer-supported design and manufacture.”
FleetManager keeps
everything in view
Production and logistical processes, as
well as the production plants at the Singen
works, are regularly modernized.
Whereby a fleet of forklifts adapted to
the needs of production is a very
important factor. All vehicles have GPRS
radio data transmission and an RFID
chip for drive authorization. Mathis
Märgner, responsible for fleet maintenance
in Singen, stresses that “If the
defined acceleration value is exceeded
during a forklift operation the vehicle
can be forced into creep mode, depending
on the setting of the acceleration
sensor in the accident recorder. This
reaction can not only be selected to
prevent collisions, but also if the vehicle
moves too quickly over uneven surfaces.”
Manuel Veser adds that “We have
been logging collisions for several years
using the FleetManager from Still.
Together with Still we have analyzed
pictures of the damage to both vehicles
and the operating materials transported
and have been able to determine
and eliminate potential sources of risk
on the drive paths at the works. The
drive behavior of the forklift drivers has
improved enormously due to annual
training and the filling in of operation
control books, in coordination with the
Works Council. As a result, the accident
rate has fallen by about 80 percent.”
The transparent vehicle biography
also shows whether particular forklifts
are working to capacity while other
vehicles have already done too many
operating hours. This form of recording
minimizes the risk of further maintenance
and servicing costs due to
non-compliance with the contractually
agreed level of operating hours. Moreover,
as a result of standardization and
fleet-oriented optimizations, the
forklifts can be exchanged between the
works departments more easily. The
fleet is therefore better utilized.
State of the art: li-ion
warehouse technology
increases availability
For the first time, 23 warehouse trucks
with lithium-ion batteries have been
stationed in the individual departments.
The advantages are clear: separate charging
devices in the departments mean
that the EXV 20 high-lift pallet trucks
from Still are now available at any time.
Mathis Märgner finds the new technology
convincing: “The most important
reason was the time savings achieved by
cutting out the long path to the central
charging stations and the long charging
times required there by the wet-cell batteries.
With their own charging stations
in the departments, we can recharge the
li-ion trucks at short notice during breaks.
The li-ion batteries reach 50 percent
of their charge capacity after only 30
minutes, whereby the service life is not
impaired by the rapid interim charging.
This removes the need for replacement
batteries and long charging cycles, as
well as the complicated maintenance of
the wet-cell batteries in the dusty
CASTING PLANT & TECHNOLOGY 4/2019 37