Contract announcement, December 2014. esco – European Salt Company GmbH & Co. KG –, a company of the K+S group registered in Hannover, commissioned H+H to carry out a comprehensive retrofit of the dispatch internal logistics at its Bernburg plant. In the transport equipment installed in the first half of the 1990s wear-affected and moving parts were changed and in some cases replaced with variants of improved design. The work was carried out without interfering with on-going operations.
esco, which has around 20 branches all over Europe, is part of the K+S group, one of the largest salt producers worldwide. The Bernburg mine has existed for more than 100 years and is located in a region with a long tradition of salt extraction. Nowadays the plant’s product range extends from de-icing and industrial salts, through edible salts, to salts for commercial use.
The renovation measures concerned the dispatch area. The processed and packed goods are stored on Europallets in a high-bay warehouse. The pallets to be retrieved are transported to the retrieval lanes on the loading ramps by means of storage and retrieval machines, chain conveyors and a double transverse distribution trolley.
The packs to be handled during this process are relatively heavy, weighing a good 1,000 kilograms. Moreover, since it works while surrounded by salt processing operations the transport equipment has to be particularly corrosion-resistant. To maintain, nevertheless, steady, automated transport operations, design modifications were also included in the scope of the renewal measures implemented.
The customer’s key demands included the necessity to avoid interfering with on-going operations during the renovation work in progress. Accordingly, after careful planning and preparation the work was carried out during a very narrow time-slot at weekends. To achieve that H+H employed eight workers on site.