Founded in 1995 as a machinery maintenance firm, Mechtop now has over 50 employees designing and building conveyor systems, tanks, pipework and custom steel structures such as railings and staircases. Located in Wangen bei Olten in northern Switzerland, the multi-faceted company needs a high degree of flexibility in its day-to-day manufacturing operations, so has upgraded its materials logistics by installing two tower storage systems and a bandsaw from Kasto.

Dominic Felice, a director of Mechtop, says: “We mainly manufacture small and very small batches down to one-offs. This is often the case when we need spare parts urgently, for instance. To meet these demands, we require systems that are versatile enough to deal with a range of processes, including our internal logistics.”

The company processes sheet metal as well as long stock including bar, tube and profile. In the past, both of these raw material types were stored in manually operated cantilever storage facilities.

Mechtop therefore decided to modernise and automate its storage infrastructure. The company opted for a compact KASTOecostore and a UNITOWER tower storage system, both manufactured by Kasto. UNITOWER is equipped with 108 storage cassettes for holding long stock up to 6 m in length, while the KASTOecostore has 26 pallet storage shelves able to accommodate sheet material up to 3 x 1.5 m.

“Automatic storage offers us a range of advantages,” states Felice. “We’ve gained a lot of valuable space, a better overview of our inventory and more control over stock, so we can work more productively and efficiently.”

Mechtop has also invested in a KASTOmicut A 2.6 automatic bandsaw. With a cutting range of up to 260 mm diameter and infinitely adjustable mitre angles from -45 to +60°, the pivot-bow bandsaw offers enough scope to cut a wide range of different components.

For further information
www.kasto.com