Ask most window and door factories what smart manufacturing means and you get a robot arm. Ask what happens to a three-metre frame between the extrusion line and the crate, and the answer gets vaguer.
That gap — how material physically moves through a plant without being damaged — is where DERCHI's new production line was designed. It is also the part of a factory that a website usually skips.
Vertical storage, not flat stacking
Two automated storage towers stand at the head of the line. Long profiles and finished frames are held upright in individual lanes behind mesh safety fencing, rather than stacked flat on racking.
That reads like a detail. It is not.
A flat-stacked aluminium frame carries its own weight across the span. Over weeks that is how a frame arrives at glazing with a bow nobody saw during inspection. Standing upright, the unit carries nothing but itself. Vertical storage also reclaims floor space — the same stock occupies a fraction of the footprint, which is what makes it possible to keep finished units beside the line instead of in a separate warehouse across the site.
Retrieval is automated. An indicator column tracks crane position and status, and the control cabinets at each tower handle lane assignment. Once a job is configured, the towers run on their own — the operator supervises rather than fetches.
The frame loads at the front
At the discharge end the frame transfers onto a roller conveyor, and from there it travels down the line without being lifted again.
This is the part clients underestimate. Every manual lift of an oversized frame is a handling risk — a corner knocked, a gasket compressed, a finish scuffed. Once the unit is on rollers those risks stop. The same frame that left storage arrives at the next station in the condition it left in.
One console, not five machines
The dark control console at the head of the line carries the DERCHI name. It is where storage retrieval and conveyor transfer are managed together, instead of three machines each with its own operator and its own start button.
The practical difference is labour, not speed. A line that moves its own material does not need someone walking beside every frame, and it does not depend on one operator's judgement about when the next stage is ready.
What this changes for a buyer
Three things, and none of them are about speed for its own sake.
Handling damage goes down. Fewer lifts means fewer chances to mark a finished surface between the end of production and the crate.
Lead time becomes predictable. Automated storage means a frame is not “somewhere in the warehouse” — it is in a known lane, and the line knows which one.
Oversized stops being a special case. Frames that are awkward to store flat and awkward to lift by hand are the normal input for this line, not an exception that needs planning around.
Where to look when you specify
If you are specifying window systems at a size where handling risk is real, or entrance and sliding doors that have to arrive undamaged, the question worth asking a supplier is not how many machines they own, but how the unit gets from the end of the line into the crate.
DERCHI is one of the top 10 windows and doors manufacturers in Asia, with more than 25 years of experience producing high-quality aluminum doors and windows. We custom-make window and door designs for any project with our professional sales and technical team. Contact us to discuss your project, or to arrange a factory visit and see the line running.
