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CONCRETE PIPES AND MANHOLES

Mark Küppers, CPI worldwide, Germany

The Maba Fertigteilindustrie GmbH is partof the Kirchdorfer Group; a group success-ful throughout Europe and whose originsgo back to 1925. Under this umbrella high

quality concrete products are produced,including components for residential, in du-strial and office buildings, sleepers andmasts for railway construction, plinths fornoise barriers and special bespoke com -ponents. Frühwald GesmbH & Co KG canalso look back on a long tradition. Foundedin 1930, its original business was centredaround the production of cement roof tilesand later components and flue technology,waste water and environmental engine -ering and surface stabilisation systems wereadded. Nowadays Frühwald ranks in allbranches of industry among the leadingsuppliers of complete systems. Both part-ners have also been working for years inEastern Europe – Maba as a major playerin the Czech market, Frühwald with fourplants in Hungary and branches in Croatia,Romania, Slovenia and Germany. Thestrong market presence and good contactsinto the Eastern European area are genera-ting the basis for further growth in TibaGmbH.

Tiba on a course of further growth

Tiba’s company focus goes well beyond theproduction of high-quality concrete pro-ducts: if customers so require, the servicemay also include complete project manage-ment from professional consultation, in -cluding the analysis of potential savingsthrough to the drafting of tender documen-tation.

Nowadays with its workforce of 86, TibaBetonwerk GmbH produces concrete com-ponents for sewer construction, drainageand environmental engineering, with allthree areas having roughly the sameemphasis. As is typical with these products,over 80 % of contracts come from thepublic sector. The main sales region isAustria, but Tiba also has considerable market share in neighbouring countries,from Slovenia through to the CzechRepublic. However business is not limited tothese markets; Tiba has also been awarded

Austrian market leader starts up new production plant for manhole components

Schlüsselbauer Technology GmbH & Co KG, 4673 Gaspoltshofen, Austria

The Tiba Betonwerk GmbH is the result of a joint venture between the Austrian concrete plants Maba and Frühwald completed in 2006; amerger that created a full-service provider, specialized in the production of concrete components for civil engineering and environmentalengineering. The market position was further enhanced following the acquisition of the well-established Bauer concrete plant in St. Margarethen an der Raab. This plant, which since 2007 has also been trading as Tiba Betonwerk GmbH, is one of the most modern plantsin Austria and there are other Tiba production sites in Sollenau and Tillmitsch. To ensure that production remains economical and is kept ata consistently high quality, Tiba of course only uses the most modern machinery and recently a new system was commissioned at theTillmitsch plant to produce manhole rings, cones and manhole bases. This new Magic 1501 system was supplied and fitted by the Austriancompany Schlüsselbauer Technology GmbH & Co KG, which is one of Tiba’s most important partners when it comes to production engineering.

The Tiba Betonwerk GmbH is the result of ajoint venture between the Austrian concreteplants Maba and Frühwald completed in2006

Manhole rings and cones are manufactured at Tiba in a wide range of dimensions with the new Magic 1501

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the contract for a large infrastructure project in Kosovo this year, which is beingfunded in collaboration with the EU.

Tiba is set on a course of further growth forthe future. This includes new offices plan-ned abroad and additional modernisationin the production plants. A symbol of this is

the most recent new acquisition of theMagic-Production plant by Schlüsselbauerfor the Tillmitsch plant, which is the largestTiba plant and in which 2/3 of the total turnover is produced.

Magic 1501 - Production plant for manhole components

The Magic 1501 is a production plant formanhole components including rings, conesand bases with heights of up to 1,500 mm,and for parts for road gullies and bentpipes in large quantities. The machine isdesigned for product sizes up to Ø 820externally in double production and up toØ 1,800 mm externally in single produc -tion. Rectangular profiles in single produc -tion can be produced up to 1,270 x 1,270mm externally.

The Magic is available in numerous diffe-rent plant concepts, ranging from stationaryproduction on a free-standing productionmachine with manual removal of the pro-ducts through to a fully automatic circula -tion system. These include production, trans-

port, storage of products, as well ascleaning and oiling of pallets.

Tiba has come up with a plant design witha free-standing production machine, manu-al removal and automatic devices like twoseparate stations for cleaning and oiling thepallets. With the space available, it cansubsequently be extended to a fully-auto-matic circulation system with a retrofittedTransexact crane robot system.

The entire manhole part production at Tibais operated by two employees. Oneemployee runs all the activities around thecurrent production and one colleague isresponsible for the dry product side.

The Magic 1501 is supplied with concreteby the mixers of Frühwald’s existing con -crete production, with the concrete beingmoved via a conveyor belt from the mixingplant to the production plant. The storagecontainer is quite spacious and is largeenough for several cycles and the mixingplant can produce concrete for other Tibaor Frühwald production plants. Alongside

The Magic 1501 is supplied with concrete from the mixers ofFrühwald’s existing concrete production

Magic 1501, to the right of the picture the pallet store in front of theoiling station

Inserting the steprungs into the Stepmaster

Automatic insertion of the pallets Filling and compression

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an additional conveyor belt, a Skako bucket conveyor ensures the concrete is distributed in the Tiba production area.

High degree of automation makes work easier

Production of a manhole element starts witha pallet being transferred to the productionmachine via the manipulator on the auto-matic pallet feeding. Prior to the transfer the

pallets inserted have also gone through theautomatic pallet oiling station. In this unit,the bottom pallets delivered are automa -tically oiled and stored. A sponge that self-adjusts to the particular pallet dimensionapplies the formwork oil in doses. The enti-re unit is encapsulated and the oiling timecan be adjusted on the operating panel.

If integrated steprungs are required, themachine operator inserts per cycle step-rungs or irons into the Stepmaster, whichthen ensures automatic insertion into themanhole element. The steprungs / irons forthe next product are connected by themachine operator to a special store duringthe filling or vibration cycle. This then drivesprogramme-controlled into waiting positionto transfer the steprungs to the core afterdemoulding. The cycle times are thusenhanced and waiting times are avoided.The operator on the Magic is not justresponsible for visually monitoring the pro-duction but also for the removal of the freshconcrete products and small adjustmentslike laying setrings on the top of the man-hole parts. Filling the production plant withconcrete, the compression process and theoutput of the finished product then occurfully automatically.

Loading and automatic pallet cleaning

The electric transport cart is used to drivethe fresh products from the production plantto their destination in the internal storagearea. Here the simultaneous transport ofseveral products is possible. By using thebuffer zones of the Magic 1501, the machi-ne operator can produce several cyclesand then bring the accumulated manholecomponents together into the setting area.

A second employee drives the hardenedproducts from the previous day’s produc -tion in another cart to the automatic de-palletising station and also supplies theMagic 1501 with clean pallets. Thisemployee also handles the automatic palle-tising process and the fully-automatic palletcleaning station, called Cleanmaster, whichis located right beside the palletising area.

During palletising, the hardened concretemanhole components are driven individual-ly into the station. Then a gripper holds the

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CONCRETE PIPES AND MANHOLES

View from the Magic onto the palletisingstation in the background

The MMagic is designed for product sizesup to Ø 820 externally in double productionand up to Ø 1,800 mm externally in singleproduction

The hardened products from the previous day’s production are moved to the loading station on the electric transport cart

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component securely on the walls and raisesit slightly. In the following step, the pallet isreleased from the manhole part and thegripper raises the element to the conveyorbelt into the external area. On this convey-or belt there are wooden pallets, continualsupply is provided via the pallet store, loca-ted in the external area. This means there isalways an empty pallet available ontowhich a manhole element is deposited bythe gripper. The loaded pallet is thenmoved outwards via the conveyor belt.Here forklifts are used to move the concrete

components on to their temporary destina -tions in the external storage area. The steelpallet in turn is shifted right into the fully-automatic pallet cleaner once it is released.Cleaning is done dry using brush technolo-gy and the cleaning systems adjust auto-matically to the different pallet dimensions,thereby minimising the wear and tear of thebrushes. The employee supplying the palle-tising station with the hardened manholecomponents is also responsible for thetransport of the cleaned pallets to theMagic 1501. This involves him takingaround 20 cleaned and stacked palletsfrom the cleaning station and drives them inhis cart to the Magic 1501.

Conclusion

The management is extremely satisfied withthe acquisition of the Magic 1501 after thefirst few days of operation. Actually, interms of its requirements, Tiba sees in theSchlüsselbauer Company the ideal partner- even for future acquisitions. This is why thecompany managers Christian Nagler andWolfgang Bauer rate the SchlüsselbauerCompany not only as a reliable partner interms of maintenance and service, but theyemphasise that the value for money anddurability of Schlüsselbauer productionplants are definitely convincing.

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The crane uses a gripper to shift the manhole element

Cleanmaster – fully-automatic pallet cleaningForklifts are used to bring the concrete components to their temporarydestinations in the external storage area

FURTHER INFORMATION

Schlüsselbauer Technology GmbH & Co KGHörbach 44673 Gaspoltshofen, AustriaT +43 7735 71440 . F +43 7735 714456sbm@sbm.at . www.sbm.at

TIBA Austria GmbH Gewerbegebiet Stangersdorf 10, Top 12 8403 Lebring, Austria T +43 577 15450110 . F +43 577 15450101 infotiba@tibanet.com . www.tibanet.com

Fresh product with integrated steprungs

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