CTI Systems Equips Trailer Factory in Turkey

Commercial trailer and agricultural machinery manufacturer Krone officially opened its new trailer factory in Turkey. CTI Systems was hired to supply material-handling equipment and to coordinate and implement the entire installation, from the coating processes to the final assembly line.

Located in the western part of Anatolia, the 185000-m² production facility will produce around 2,000 units by end of this year, mainly curtain-sider trailers. The plant's annual capacity is approximately 10,000 units, which will be sold in the Turkish market and in the markets around Turkey (Turkish states, North Africa, Iran and Iraq).

The plant design began with the layout of the complete facility, including production and administration buildings and outside areas. After the design phase, CTI Systems assisted with the selection of the construction company in Turkey and was responsible for supervision of the interfaces between the building, the machinery and all automated processes during construction. The plant is equipped with the latest systems to meet customers’ quality requirements and those of their clients.

In the fall of 2012 when the first trailers came off the production line, The Managing Director of Krone explained, “We wanted to start with a small quantity of around 50 trailers per week. We have been slowly ramping up production and are very pleased that all the processes are running properly.” Production was originally planned to begin in 2009 but, owing to the global financial crisis, was delayed.

The system starts with the shot-blasting process at the end of which the chassis are cleaned from the remaining shots through a semi-automatic turning station. From there, the chassis or smaller parts are transferred to the input area, which is connected to a fully automatic surface treatment process of pretreatment, cathodic e-coating, heat treatment and powder coating. The transfer through the coating processes and to the intermediate buffer zones is accomplished with CTI-provided automatic transfer bridges, shuttles and conveyors.

Linked to the surface treatment processes is the final assembly. CTI Systems provided all handling and transport devices from the semiautomatic turning station, the patent track monorail system with transfer bridges and monorail conveyors to the tilting station and floor turntable.

The installation shows how CTI Systems can provide complete systems for automatic manufacturing and coating lines. Additionally, all warehouse systems run with the CTI self-developed warehouse management system software, and CTI manufacturing execution system software, with links to the ERP system, can control the manufacturing operations.