New ageing plant for concrete products with automatic ......multi-format blocks mechanically. Ageing system with fully automated packaging unit The entire new ageing and packaging

CPI – Concrete Plant International – 2 | 2011 www.cpi-worldwide.com106

CONCRETE PRODUCTS & CAST STONE

Mark Küppers, CPI worldwide, Germany

The Leier Group is involved in an extremelybroad range of business activities. In theservice sector, Leier is engaged in variousspheres that are independent of each other:going from property management to busi-ness hotels and the car dealerships of well-known manufacturers to their own machineand mould engineering company with astaff of more than 100.

In the sphere of construction materials, theLeier Group can offer a wide range of pro-ducts as well, and, in the segments of civilengineering, gardening and landscaping,the company is practically an all-round sup-plier. Differing wall systems, such as hollow -core walls, all popular floor systems (elementflooring, ribbed floors and precast prestres-sed concrete component floors), straightand winding precast stair units and a com-prehensive garden construction programme,are manufactured in the 15 concrete pro-

duction facilities. In addition, their construc-tion materials’ portfolio includes chimneysystems and roofing tiles.

Situated to the north of Vienna, KaisersteinGesellschaft mbH has belonged to the LeierGroup as a company since June 2008. Atthis site, Kaiserstein successfully produceshigh-quality concrete products, such aspaving blocks in a variety of differentcolours, concrete blocks, formwork blocks,masonry blocks, fencing blocks with acoping, lawn edging elements and pro-ducts for civil engineering, too. All productsare marketed under the Kaiserstein brand,a name widely known for high-class pro-ducts. Kaiserstein employs a staff of some

40 persons and has been able to carve outsubstantial sections of the market in Austriaand the neighbouring countries. The com-pany has been repeatedly chosen to supply

New ageing plant for concrete products with automatic packaging unit for multi-format blocks at Kaiserstein in Austria

Gerhard Warning GmbH, 33619 Bielefeld, Germany

The Leier Group of Companies is an internationally recognised corporation with a total staff of approximately 2,000 at 40 sites in Austria,Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Leier’s business activities are well diversified but can be separated into two main sectors:construction materials and services. The construction materials’ area concerns mainly concrete products – from large-scale precast com-ponents right up to paving blocks that Leier produces and markets in the above-named countries. A total of 15 concrete paving block andprecast production facilities provide the potential for market-driven manufacturing in such a large sales area. Of paramount importance toLeier is not the quantity of concrete products manufactured but rather their quality, with a view to maintaining customer satisfaction on along-term basis. In order to keep up with customer demand for antiqued concrete pavers – and increasingly for multi-format blocks -, a newageing plant with a fully automated sorting and packaging unit was commissioned at the production facility of Kaiserstein, a member of theLeier Group of Companies. The plant was supplied by Gerhard Warning GmbH from Bielefeld, Germany.

Österreich

Polen

Slowakei

Tschechien

UngarnRumänien

Ukraine

Kroatien

Slowenien

Deutschland

Italien

BosnienHerzegowina Serbien

The Leier Group has 40 sites in six countries

Antiqued concrete paving block withKaiserstein logo

Kaiserstein produces high-quality concrete products in a variety of different colours

04a-Waren_106-117_en.qxp:Layout 1 16.03.2011 14:15 Uhr Seite 106


concrete products for special projects. Onecurrent project of major importance, forwhich Kaiserstein gained the contract, islocated in the heart of Vienna. Extensivepaving work is being carried out in theworld-famous Prater park, for which Kaiser -stein is manufacturing the concrete pavingblocks. This large-scale project is a real cal-ling card for the company and givesKaiserstein Gesellschaft mbH managingdirector, Mr. Martin Gruber MA, groundsfor particular pride.

Antiqued concrete paving blocks on the advance

Antiqued concrete paving blocks are becom-ing increasingly popular in Austria. AtKaiserstein, antiqued products make upapproximately 30% of turnover with a cleartrend to growth. The concrete goods, allmade from facing concrete, are manufactur-ed on a block-making plant from Henke,now Masa Henke. The rack system forcuring the fresh products was similarly

installed by Henke. A Kimido colour dosingsystem makes individual colourations of theconcrete goods possible.

With the aim of being able to accommodatethe growing demand by means of a high-capacity system, Kaiserstein looked aroundon the market for suitable ageing machinesfor giving hardened paving blocks an anti-qued finish. In the end, Mr. Martin Gruberdecided for an ageing system fromGerhard Warning GmbH. One convincing

Accumulation bin for the ageing plant into which new concreteblocks are deposited

The blocks reach the ageing drum via a conveyor belt

SPLITTING LINES FOR HIGH-QUALITY SPLIT CONCRETE BLOCKS

Splitting line with rotation crane

Splitting line with automatic grippers

TECHNO SPLIT S.R.L. - Via Barricata, 12/B - 38050 OSPEDALETTO (TN) - ITALIA - T. +39 0461 770027 - F. +39 0461 [email protected] - www.technosplit.com

SEEKING SALES REPRESENTATIVES FOR NEW AREAS

5 - 8 O t t o b r e 2 0 1 1 - B o l o g n a

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argument, amongst others, was the satisfac-tion voiced both at home and abroad byother concrete manufacturing operatorswho have been producing with this ageingsystem for longer periods of time. Anotherimportant criterion in purchasing this plantwas the possibility of being able to stackmulti-format blocks mechanically.

Ageing system with fully automated packaging unit

The entire new ageing and packagingsystem was erected in one hall. New con-crete blocks are carefully tipped directlyfrom a pallet with the aid of a forklift into alarge feed hopper, which is located at thebeginning of the ageing process. Theageing drum downstream is fed via a con-veyor belt from this storage container. Theblocks are then given their antiqued appea-rance with broken corners and edges asthey pass through the drum. The degree ofageing can be determined by means of theplant’s control unit; variable adjustmentscan be made to the torque delivered.

Broken material falls down through wideslits in the drum into containers positioneddirectly underneath. Fine dust is removed toa very great extent from the productionarea by a ventilation system.

Once the concrete products have passedthrough the ageing drum, they continueonto another conveyor belt. This belt ismovable and can transport the concreteblocks further on the next conveyor to thesorting and packaging unit or can takethem out of the production line. In the lattercase, the loose antiqued blocks can beimmediately filled into receptacles (e.g. bigbags). In a normal case, the antiquedblocks proceed directly to the sorting station.

Patented sorting technology If the blocks are to be sorted by machineand stacked on pallets, they are transferredto the next conveyor belt, upon which theythen travel to the patented sorting unit, theso-called “Organizer”. By dint of the Orga -nizer’s special sorting technology, theblocks are all positioned fully automatically

in a longitudinal direction. An employeestands at the end of the sorting system tovisually check block quality. Defective pro-ducts can be immediately rejected at thispoint without having to stop the plant. Atthe same time, this operator can check allsequences on a monitor and control theageing drum as well.

Now that the blocks have been sorted, theyare transferred automatically to an interme-diate storage belt, which conveys them tothe packaging unit. Any remaining brokenmaterial falls from the Organizer’s conveyorbelt onto another lower belt that brings thebroken pieces to the same container, inwhich the rejected blocks also end up. Thismeans that the employee only has to placethe defective blocks on the conveyor beltand does not have to carry them to a col-lection point.

The intermediate storage belt is a long con-veyor belt upon which the blocks travel tothe automatic packaging unit. As its namemay suggest, this intermediate storage belt

The ageing drum possesses a wear-resistant rubber lining The movable conveyor belt behind the ageing drum

Only one employee stationed at the end of the Organizer is neededto monitor and control the entire production process

Conveyor belt for carrying away residual broken pieces and rejected blocks




ensures that the packaging unit is fed conti-nuously and uniformly.

Uniform rows even with multi-formatblocksIndividual layers of blocks are set into rowsin the packaging machine. To this end, theyare thrust into the system in a line from theintermediate storage belt. Since a particu-lar row length cannot be assigned a con-stant amount of multi-format blocks, thesystem measures the length of the line thathas been inserted and halts the action oncea predefined length has been reached. Theline of blocks then proceeds to a so-calledfishbone system, which is composed ofseveral steel plates initially positioned closeto each other. As the fishbone system movesapart horizontally, the block lines aredrawn apart and block rows of equallength are formed. However, the blocks areno longer positioned side by side in theserows; spaces have been created. The row isthen pushed by a power-assisted side shift -ing device onto a retractable packagingunit service sheet. The procedure is repeat -ed until a complete layer of blocks hasbeen made.

Once a block layer has been completed, alayer shifting device takes charge of it. Thiswell engineered technique with retractablesheets makes it possible for the layer to betransferred gently to a wooden pallet, whichwill have been positioned directly under thepackaging unit’s opening by an elevatingplatform. With each layer of blocks that isplaced upon the pallet, this elevating unitsinks down by the height of the same layeruntil the required package height has beenreached. The individual layers can be stack -ed offset from one another as the pallet isdisplaced slightly in a horizontal directionafter each new layer of blocks. The stability

of the block packets is substantially enhanc -ed in this way. The completed packages ofblocks are transferred to a roller conveyorand a new wooden pallet is then broughtautomatically from pallet storage to the ele-vating unit. The system permits antiquedblock products to be constantly packagedwithout interruption.

On their way on the roller conveyor, thecompleted block packets pass through aCyklop foil station, at which point the pa -ckets can be wrapped in foil if need be. Thepackets are subsequently conveyed to theoutdoor area and removed by forklift there.This forklift then transports the pallets to out-side storage until further notice.

The entire ageing, sorting and packagingsystem can be operated by only twoemployees. Whilst one employee monitorsthe system, the other is involved in removingthe finished, antiqued packages of blocks,filling the pallet storage stack and feedingthe ageing plant with new concrete blocks.

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Intermediate storage belt

The fishbone system used for drawing theline of blocks apart can be seen in themiddle of the picture

Once a complete block layer has been formed, it is transferred to a pallet by means of a retractable sheet

Intermediate storage zone in the outsidearea


www.cpi-worldwide.com CPI – Concrete Plant International – 2 | 2011


Uniform multi-format packets – the fishbone system makes it possible

The individual layers are stacked offset for better stability

Leier Zentrale ÖsterreichGünser Straße 367312 Horitschon, AustriaT +43 2610 423750 · F +43 2610 [email protected] · www.leier.eu

Kaiserstein Gesellschaft m.b.H.2013 Großstelzendorf 123, AustriaT +43 2954 302200 · F +43 2954 [email protected] · www.kaiserstein.eu

Gerhard WarningVerschleißtechnik und Industrieprodukte GmbHRehhagenhof 32 33619 Bielefeld, GermanyT +49 521 141313 · F +49 521 [email protected] · www.gerhard-warning.de

FURTHER INFORMATION

CureTec Energietechnik GmbH & Co. KG

Lehmkuhlen 13

49757 Vrees

Germany

T // +49 4479 93 90 600

F // +49 4479 93 90 620

E // [email protected]

W // www.curetec.biz

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New ageing plant for concrete products with automatic ......multi-format blocks mechanically. Ageing system with fully automated packaging unit The entire new ageing and packaging