Storing its 34 huge progressive dies in vertical multi-tier racks, rather than having the dies lying all over the production floor, makes life so much easier in the progressive-stamping bay of the Warren Stamping Plant of DaimlerChrysler Corp. occupied by three presses-two 108-by-186-in. 1500-ton models and an 84-by-96-in. 800-ton press-the bay floor once was market by dozens of yellow lines. The lines created a parking lot of sorts, representing floor-storage sites for the dies, some as large as 186 in. long and weighing to 80,000 lb.Die handling, whether to move the ides from their parking spots to the rolling bolsters of the presses or to move them to a remote die-maintenance area in the plant, posed quite a challenge to the plant. That is, up until December 2000, when the plant turned to an automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS), supplied by Atlas Technologies, Fenton, MI, to store and handle the dies.
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