Above: Hack saws were the first type of saws that Kasto produced.
December, 2024- Numerous machine shops, service centers and fabricators around the world count on Kasto as a vendor of choice for sawing machines, storage systems and material handling equipment, as well as a developer of intelligent material ow software. The company’s roots go deep: Karl Stolzer founded the company as a carpentry business in 1844 in Achern, Germany. Kasto Maschinenbau GmbH & Co. is still located in the same municipality, and North American subsidiary Kasto Inc. is based in Export, Pennsylvania, with a satellite showroom and technology center located in Schaumburg, Illinois.
Over time, Stolzer turned his carpentry workshop into a factory making various machines, including sawmills. Kasto is credited with the global patent for the first hack saw for cutting metal in an arc-shaped cutting movement in 1947, according to Stefan Dolipski, vice president of Kasto Inc.
To adapt to changing market conditions for hack saws, which ranged from semiautomatic to fully automatic models at Kasto, the company started producing circular saws as well.
“We started building circular saws in many different configurations and automated them,” Dolipski says.
The next cutting machines from Kasto were band saws, which today is the primary saw line, mainly serving service centers and machine shops, according to Dolipski. Band saws are available for cutting small diameter bar to those that can handle big slabs of steel. “[We go] all the way up to bigger plate saws that can cut pretty much a 10-foot square.”
FOR THE LONG HAUL
When developing band saws, one area of focus is the mechanics of the machine to provide longevity. “Some of the saws that we have out there were built in the early 1980s—40-plus years old at this point,” Dolipski says. Electronics are part of the package. For example, Kasto develops the control to enable the best cutting performance while offering ease of operation that lets an operator learn to run a machine quickly.
In addition to sawing equipment, Kasto manufactures systems for bar and sheet metal storage.
Dolipski explains that all machines that have a control can be networked together to retrieve and share data. “You can get the data in and out of the machine, meaning it can populate all the order information into the machine.”
In addition, the saw control on some machines communicates with an end user’s ERP system, downloading the information about what materials need to be cut.
“The ERP system can automatically download information into the saw, and the operator just has a list of mobile machine orders that he needs to select from,” he says. “The operator doesn’t have to put too much information in. Essentially, he’s just looking for his order number or his part number, selecting that and it automatically has all the settings behind it.”
To boost productivity, Kasto developed “smart” software solutions for its sawing, storage, service and integrated technologies. One smart solution is Kasto app, a platform-independent web application that allows users to track the status of a saw in real time from anywhere using a cell phone, tablet or computer.
“Kasto app allows you to see utilization of the machine, if the machine is currently running, if there are any faults or any messages on the machine,” Dolipski says. “You can see what the saw is doing.”
Kasto app is a platform-independent web application to keep track of the status of sawing machines in real-time.
FROM A DISTANCE
Another smart solution is Kasto VisualAssistance for remote maintenance and repair. Kasto technicians and customer service personnel share the same eld of vision in real-time, helping to quickly identify individual components and troubleshoot possible malfunctions.
Troubleshooting in the past often required someone to visit the customer’s facility, but now “we can do all that remotely if it’s connected to the network,” Dolipski says, noting that this arrangement reduces machine downtime.
As part of its evolution, Kasto introduced a bar storage and retrieval system, and integrated that with its saws, in 1972. “We came to the point where it took longer to get a bar or a product onto a machine that it took to cut it and then take it off again,” Dolipski explains. “People were looking for more of an automation setup.”
After building machinery to automatically load and unload a saw, he says metalworking professionals asked if Kasto could deliver the same type of bar handling system without a cutting process. As a result, the company began building systems to store bar and long products.
Eventually, customers also requested systems for handling and storing metal sheets, he adds, and Kasto complied. “When you look at it, [sheet metal handling] was actually a more cumbersome process than bar storage and bar picking."
A Kasto technician uses Kasto VisualAssistance via smart glasses. The smart solution allows users to send live videos to Kasto’s service personnel for remote maintenance and repair.
MECHANIZED MOVEMENTS
Automation is critical to enhancing the efficiency of a storage system, Dolipski notes. For example, a user can automatically grab a pallet out of a pallet stack, put a piece of cardboard underneath it for protection, then stack the order based on customer criteria, which could be four sheets of one material and 10 sheets of another. “We evolved from not just being the storage portion of it, but also doing more and more automated picking.”
Kasto is credited with the global patent for the first hack saw for cutting metal in an arc-shaped cutting movement in 1947.
Automated storage and retrieval enhances efficiency and increases worker safety, Dolipski says. A common arrangement at a service center without automation, for example, involves a worker driving a side loader up and down aisles to pick material, which is time consuming and potentially hazardous.
“Whenever you have a manual operation, there are a lot of things that can go wrong,” he says. “You have a lot of moving parts with the forklift as far as handling.” What Kasto seeks to do is place all the movement behind a fenced-off area. Material transfers from storage to machine automatically, and no workers are in harm’s way.
In addition to service centers and job shops, Kasto targets a larger customer base for its storage systems, Dolipski says, such as window and siding businesses. For example, Kasto recently sold five tower storage systems to Architectural Grille in Brooklyn, a manufacturer of metal ventilation and airflow covers, to improve logistics processes, efficiency and workstation safety.
The Kasto maxcut A 20 is an automatic band saw in a gantry design for cutting large material dimensions.
With a large portion of the customer base being repeat business and another large portion being referrals from appreciative customers, Dolipski says Kasto continues to invest and grow, while continuing to service and support existing customers. “We’re planning on establishing further facilities in the United States, establish ourselves a bit more on the manufacturing side and assemble some of the components locally.”
Kasto Inc., 724/325-5600, kasto.com
