Andernach 12 Oct 2022 - For Ebenseer GmbH, sustainable production in accordance with the latest environmental, safety and quality standards is a top priority. Therefore, the company invested in an improved production plant at the Vorchdorf site. Masa supplied the state-of-the-art machine technology for this.

The product range of Ebenseer GmbH, a Rohrdorfer company, is as diverse as it is high-quality: pavers, slabs, modern design elements and attractive wall and boundary systems made of concrete are manufactured at the two production sites in Maishofen and Vorchdorf (Austria) for the regional sales market in Salzburg and Tyrol as well as Upper Austria. The market is demanding for very high standards of the products, as houses and gardens are often located in alpine terrain and therefore exposed to extreme weather conditions. In addition to the visual appearance, technical product requirements such as load-bearing capacity, frost resistance and persistence must be met to an exceptionally high degree for the end customers.

The recently completed, extensive modernisation measure in Vorchdorf covered all core areas of the plant: the dosing and mixing plant, the block making machine and the ring plant up to the packaging and storage of the end products were renewed step by step.

Milestone 1: The planning phase

For this major project, Ebenseer relied on renowned plant manufacturers from Germany and brought Masa GmbH (block making machine and ring plant) as well as other traditional companies on board. From day one to the final project completion, all those involved in the technical coordination obviously benefited from the wealth of knowledge and experience of all the companies engaged in the project.

Milestone 2: State-of-the-art machine technology

After the successful dismantling of the old production plant, the construction of the new plant components could be pursued step by step from December 2021. Masa concentrated on the block making machine as the heart of the production as well as on the pivotal points of the production plant, the transport and handling equipment.

In detail, Masa provided:

• Block making machine XL 9.1, equipped with a wide range of machine features that enable Ebenseer GmbH to manufacture high-quality products for gardening and landscaping in a future-oriented manner.
• Hydrautainer and Powertainer, as pre-installed, optimised rooms for control cabinets and hydraulic system.
• Modular transport systems, designed as V-belt conveyor systems for independent process sequences in the handling of the production and dry side.
• Quality control stations on wet and dry side
• Curing area with new finger carfor reliable, effective and intelligent storage and retrieval of the products. In addition, Masa sustainably integrated the existing, still functional elevator, lowerator, intermediate finger car and the original chamber system.
• Flexible storage solution for production boards: The combination of various components (including a transport carriage with telescopic mast and turning device, generous storage rack and shifter unit with runway, lifting/lowering unit and clamping basket with vertical turning gear) aims to achieve the greatest possible independence of the wet and dry side and thus to compensate for product-related cycle time differences.
• New cubing device and cube transport as a very clearly designed solution with which Ebenseer was able to realise both the demand for high availability and the goal of flexibly and optimally preparing the most diverse end products for transport by means of individual, high-quality and extensive packaging in parallel.

Milestone 3: Transparency in plant data

Masa equips each concrete block production plant with modular software for uniform operation and visualization of the components (available as Basic version or in the Advanced and Professional expansion stages). Transparency plays a very important role for Ebenseer GmbH. In this respect, it is essential to have a sufficient number of relevant plant data that can be logged and evaluated. At the Vorchdorf plant, the installed Professional version offers numerous tools that allow conclusions to be drawn about the productivity and efficiency of the plant, enable cause research in the event of production interruptions, or tools for optimizing the plant.

Conclusion

Alen Avdibegovic, Project and Plant Group Manager East, sums up the entire rebuild project at the Vorchdorf plant once again: "The new plant uses the most efficient plant technology and electronics currently available on the market. The design of the workplaces has been rethought. The clarity of the ring plant promotes cooperation among the production team. The optimized process flow has further reduced idle times."

You can also read the detailed report on the individual milestones here.