At the MWP Awards Dinner, held in Birmingham, UK, during the MACH 2008 machine tool exhibition, KASTO won the category "Best Workholding/Workhandling Equipment" for its multi-level, automated storage and retrieval system, UNICOMPACT.
The Award was collected on the night by Armin Stolzer, Managing Director of the German company, which manufactures sawing machines as well as storage systems for long stock and sheet.
The reason that the panel of eleven independent judges gave for choosing the UNICOMPACT as the winner was because it is, "A comprehensive modular storage and retrieval system that offers the levels of automation that are essential in an increasingly competitive global environment".
The multi-level, automated storage and retrieval systems, which can be up to 25 metres in height, feature excellent space utilisation in new and existing buildings, internally as well as externally, and are particularly suited to use by stockholders, extruders and manufacturers. The systems handle bar as well as sheet sizes up to 5 tonnes per location.
A gantry crane ensures speedy picking and deliveries on a " random cassette " basis, which decreases picking time by up to 30 per cent in a high density, honeycomb matrix offering maximum material storage.
Using the 'material to operator' principle, the UNICOMPACT bar storage system delivers material rapidly to outfeed/picking stations for further processing and/or shipping. An extensive variety of station designs increases the efficiency of internal processing and commissioning of solids, tubes or profiles, be they of steel, non-ferrous metals, plastic or even wood.