With more than 1,000 employees, a turnover of over 300 million euros and 178 years of experience, BITO-Lagertechnik Bittmann GmbH is one of the market leaders for warehouse technology in Europe. Founded in 1845, the company from Meisenheim in the Palatinate region of Germany is now a full-service provider of racking, container, picking and transport systems. The portfolio comprises over 5,000 products and is supplied to more than 70,000 customers worldwide. In addition to standard products, the project business is becoming increasingly important. BITO develops scalable storage systems for its customers from a modular system with a high degree of customization, tailored to customer requirements. The products are flexible and expandable, and the Meisenheim-based company supports its customers from start-ups to medium-sized companies and large corporations.
BITO processes sheet metal from coils for certain parts of racking systems, in particular cross beams and uprights. Special coil lines are required to feed the material into production. Their basic design consists of a decoiler, on which the sheet metal coil is clamped, and a leveling unit. The leveling unit ensures that the curvature of the sheet metal caused by winding it onto the coil is eliminated. It also ensures that the sheet metal is as flat as possible and free of residual stresses for further processing. In addition, there are strip insertion aids and, depending on the design, a loop bridge, feed technology and, if necessary, a strip end welding machine. At BITO, the coil lines are followed by a deep-drawing press or a roll forming system.
The first coil line from ARKU moved into BITO back in 1986. A large number of coil lines from Baden-Baden can now be found in the halls. "ARKU is our supplier for the sophisticated, high-quality systems," explains Günter Knecht, Head of Equipment Design and Toolmaking / Industrial Engineering at BITO. The reason: the quality of the leveling technology is also reflected in the quality of the end product. "Today, automated systems in particular demand accuracies that are a real challenge for us," says Knecht. It is not only the roll forming machine that has to deliver high precision, but also the upstream coil line. The straightness and stress relieved of the coil is a decisive factor. "Straightness and stress relieve make the end product more stable, which is why accuracy is the most important decision factor for us when preparing the coil," reports Knecht. The leveling units are also equipped with ARKU's patented EcoPlan® drive system. "It provides up to 30 percent more power with the same energy requirement. Like an ABS system in a car, EcoPlan® prevents the leveling rollers from slipping on the sheet. This reduces wear on the rollers, protects the material surface and also saves energy," explains Johannes Decker, Sales Coil Lines at ARKU.
Another aspect is the operability of the coil line. After all, the sheet metal coils have to be lifted onto a loading chair using an indoor crane, prepared and pushed onto the coiler. "ARKU is easy to operate here, the employees can handle the technology in any case," says Knecht. The units from Baden-Baden have a double mandrel decoiler to speed up loading. The documentation is also easy to understand and detailed, even for individual adjustments to the coil line. Over the years, the ARKU coil lines have evolved significantly and can now be completely converted and adjusted themselves.
The parameters for each product are also stored in the coil line's control panel. The operators can see immediately how the machine is working via a digital display. This minimizes human error. Nevertheless, the employees still have to check whether the required quality is being achieved and make any necessary adjustments. "Not all steel is the same, every coil behaves slightly differently," explains Knecht. However, digital tools are likely to become more important in the future, as the shortage of skilled workers is also an issue for BITO.
The ARKU coil lines have proven their worth in recent years, when steel was in short supply and often only available in lower quality. Here, BITO clearly noticed whether a leveling unit was equipped with 21 rollers or fewer. According to Knecht, this was also a reason for choosing ARKU again for the latest project: "We assume that the fluctuations in material quality will increase. With ARKU, we can ensure better material quality and achieve a more stable overall process," he says.
Knecht has also had good experience with the availability of ARKU machines, which is over 95 percent. A coil line from Baden-Baden is therefore installed at the start of the most important production lines at BITO. "And if something does happen, the service is always there quickly," continues Knecht. This is becoming increasingly important, because the rapid growth of recent years means that the coil lines now operate in three or four shifts. Every breakdown then becomes a problem.
"We at BITO have been in business contact with ARKU for over 30 years, and it has always worked very well.", Knecht summarizes his findings and explains: "ARKU is always the first call for us when it comes to coil lines and leveling."