Herochu Automatic Pipe Storage and Retrieval System
Turn miles of tube, beam and bar into one compact, high-speed inventory—custom-built from $42,000, CE/EU/ISO 9001 approved
Every minute a forklift hunts for the right length of pipe is a minute the plasma cutter stands idle and the welder leans on the rail. Herochu’s Automatic Pipe Storage and Retrieval System replaces that random walk with a choreographed dance: gantry bridge, hardened chain drive and twin linear guides deliver the exact bundle to the loading table in under ninety seconds, 24 hours a day. Starting at $42,000 the configuration is cut to the cube of your building, the weight of your stock and the rhythm of your shifts, so you buy no more steel, motors or software than you actually need.
- Heavy-Duty Gantry, Surgical Precision
The bridge is welded from S355 H-beam, stress-relieved and milled in one pass to keep camber below 0.5 mm over 30 m. Four flange-mounted travel wheels, each turning on sealed spherical roller bearings, are pulled by a 7.5 kW geared brake motor via 16B-2 roller chain. Frequency-controlled acceleration caps longitudinal speed at 12 m/min but holds positional repeatability within ±2 mm, verified by a magnetic absolute encoder that never loses count, even after power loss. The cross-travel trolley uses the same drive package, so the same PLC program handles pipe from 6 m to 12 m without mechanical change-over. - Vertical Lift That Respects Surface Quality
A 5 kW worm-gear hoist with counter-weight ropes gives 9 m/min lifting speed yet keeps bundle oscillation to millimetres. The hook plate is machined with a 45° V-groove and interchangeable polyurethane facings; pipes seat securely without dents or slip marks that later show up on polished stainless. Load cells on every hoist provide real-time weight capture—handy for invoicing by the metre and for preventing the 5 t overload that voids warranties on lesser systems. - Rack Structure That Thinks in 3-D
Uprights are cold-formed 300 × 90 mm closed sections with 4 mm wall thickness, punched on 50 mm pitch for bolt-on arms. Each arm is a welded box tipped with a replaceable nylon buffer rated –30 °C to +80 °C, so frost in a northern yard or radiant heat near a paint booth will not embrittle the contact face. Standard bays are 6015, 6020 or 6025 mm long; height is built from 8 to 13 tiers, giving clear openings from 480 mm to 820 mm. A single bay carries 3 t per level; double-reinforced bays accept 5 t. Whatever the mix, the frame is calculated to Eurocode 3 and supplied with a signed static analysis—insurers like the paperwork, safety officers like the margins. - Material Carriers That Double as Shipping Cradles
Instead of slings that tangle and fray, Herochu supplies welded steel carriers. Fork pockets are integral, so the same cradle leaves the rack, rides the truck and returns—no re-handling, no lost time. Bundles are strapped with PET tension band through dedicated slots, keeping ovality within ASTM limits even after days in storage. Carriers are colour-coded by size range; an RFID tag welded to the side links the physical bundle to the stock record in your ERP. - Guide Rails That Stay Straight for Decades
Rails are 60 × 40 mm cold-drawn steel, induction-hardened to 55 HRC on the running face. They are anchored to a reinforced concrete strip with M20 chemical anchors, torque-sealed and mapped with a total station. Result: less than 1 mm deviation over 100 m, eliminating the micro-shim ritual that delays commissioning on lesser brands. Should you extend the building, rails splice with a fish-plate and dowel arrangement that keeps the top surface flush—no grinding, no downtime. - Software That Speaks Your Language
The heart is a Siemens S7-1200 PLC talking PROFINET to the drives, while a 12-inch colour HMI displays inventory in real time. If your scheduler runs Oracle, SAP or a simple Excel CSV, the middleware pushes pick lists to the crane and pulls consumption data back. Bar-code or RFID verification ensures the operator cannot accidentally load 219 mm pipe when the cut list calls for 168 mm. Shift reports—down to the metre, the kilogram and the remnant length—are exported automatically, trimming month-end stock takes from days to hours. - Labour Economics That Pay for the Machine
A typical two-crank-stick operator team feeding a saw or a laser can consume 12 t of random-length pipe per shift. Herochu’s system needs one forklift driver to top up the inbound lane; the gantry does the rest. Customers report payroll savings of 1.5 FTE per shift. At €35,000 per year per operator, the machine delivers a full cash pay-back in 14–18 months even before floor-space savings are counted. - Floor-Space Reality Check
Storing 1,000 t of 6 m pipe on blocks needs roughly 1,800 m² plus 600 m² of working aisle. The same 1,000 t fits inside 420 m² of Herochu racks, leaving 1,380 m² for value-adding machines—or for avoiding a costly extension. In cities where industrial rent exceeds €60/m²/year, the annual saving alone justifies finance lease payments. - Expansion Without Demolition
Because bays are free-standing and the control network is a simple PROFINET daisy-chain, you can add another gantry bridge or extend the rail line during a weekend shutdown. No roof ties, no floor trenches, no flame cutting. Your original PLC program recognises new addresses automatically; commissioning engineers only need to teach the revised travel limits. - Compliance Pack Ready for Audit
Every welded seam is logged to EN ISO 3834-2; steel certificates trace back to the mill; motors and panels carry CE marks. A full FAT is filmed and uploaded to a secure server for your review before despatch. On site, our technician carries out a 200-hour endurance test, records noise levels (<70 dB(A)) and measures earth bonding (<0.1 Ω). The resulting file satisfies ISO 9001 auditors, insurance surveyors and corporate risk departments alike.
Typical Specification Snapshot
Storage length: 6 015 / 6 020 / 6 025 mm (other lengths on request)
Tiers: 8–13 levels
Load per tier: 3 t or 5 t
Travel speed long travel: 12 m/min
Hoist speed: 9 m/min
Position accuracy: ±2 mm
Drive: chain & sprocket, linear guide rails
Power: 380–480 V, 50/60 Hz, three-phase
Control: Siemens PLC, 12-inch HMI, Ethernet/OPC-UA
Temperature range: –20 °C to +45 °C standard, arctic execution available
Finishing: shot-blast SA 2.5, zinc-rich primer 60 µm, top coat RAL 2004 orange or RAL 5012 light blue
Installation Timeline
Week 1: Site survey, floor flatness laser scan, anchor layout
Week 2: Factory manufacture, FAT witness optional
Week 3: Delivery, off-load, anchor setting
Week 4: Mechanical assembly, rail alignment, encoder teach
Week 5: Electrical termination, safety validation, operator training
Week 6: 72-hour production trial, sign-off, warranty begins
Maintenance You Can Perform
Weekly: visual chain lubrication level, rail sweep for swarf
Monthly: check tension of 16B-2 chain, measure wear on running wheels
Quarterly: download fault log, back up PLC, inspect hook plate for deformation
Annually: load-cell calibration, encoder reference reset, full alignment survey
All wearing parts are off-the-shelf components available from local bearing distributors—no exotic imports, no months-long waits.
Return on Investment Calculator
Input: annual tonnage, labour rate, forklift hours, floor cost per m²
Output: pay-back month, net present value, internal rate of return
Ask for the spreadsheet; most users see IRR above 28 % under European labour rates, higher in North America and the Gulf.
Ordering Conversation Starter
Send us a simple sketch: building width, maximum bundle mass, preferred handling side, crane hook coverage. Within 48 hours we return a plan view, elevation, power demand and firm price. A 30 % production deposit locks the slot; 70 % is due after on-line acceptance. Finance lease and hire-purchase schemes are available for qualified purchasers.
From $42,000 you do not simply buy a gantry and some racks—you purchase measurable speed, verifiable space and the right to quote shorter lead times than competitors still hunting bar stock in the bushes. Install Herochu’s Automatic Pipe Storage and Retrieval System, press the green button and let the crane deliver every length exactly when the schedule says it should be there.
