Day: 18 May 2020

The supplier of safety and assistance systems for intralogistics, Elokon, has launched a number of innovations and enhanced features for its proximity detection and warning system ELOshield. These include the company’s first commercially available wearable in the form of a smart vest, new pedestrian modules and ELOshieldSPEED; an automatic system for reducing the speed of industrial vehicles across extensive areas in the warehouse. Due to the cancellation of many industry events for the foreseeable future, Elokon has set up a dedicated section on its website which contains detailed information, videos and interviews with company personnel about these new developments: highlights.elokon.com

The technology integrated into the new smart safety vest not only enhances safety for employees when working in the vicinity of forklifts, AGVs and cobots, but also offers maximum comfort and unhampered mobility. This intelligent and connected piece of workwear incorporates all the functions of ELOshield’s pedestrian modules. It sends out visual, acoustic and haptic warning signals to the wearer as soon as they encroach the danger zone, preventing any risk of collisions. The ISO-certified hi-vis vest is made of lightweight soft shell material and comes in a range of sizes.

The company now offers two versions of its ELOshield pedestrian modules for more customer flexibility. They communicate by radio with the ELOshield modules fitted to industrial vehicles, ensuring optimum employee protection by emitting acoustic, haptic and flashing warnings when they enter a danger zone. Both modules are particularly compact, weighing just either 110g or 140g and the choice comes down to the length of battery time required: the smaller one-shift module will work for around 12 hours and the slightly larger two-shift version has a capacity of around 20 hours. The new modules are freely configurable, can be combined with each other and can be set up for different groups of people, such as warehouse staff or visitors.

Keeping extensive areas in the warehouse safe and secure can be problematic but this issue has now been solved following the introduction of ELOshield’s new functionality ELOshieldSPEED. This enables individual danger zones – such as entire halls or long aisles with specific entrances and exits, to be defined and requires no intervention from the driver. Vehicles entering these zones are automatically slowed down to the designated speed, and their original speed is automatically resumed once they exit the zone.

A British engineering firm that works with some of the biggest brands in the aerospace and automotive sectors has brought its experience to commercial vehicle bodybuilding in a bid to transform the home delivery sector.

Coventry-based Penso is launching a new range of ultra-lightweight bodies for 3.5-tonne commercial vehicles which have been carefully designed to tackle all issues facing last mile logistics fleets, namely: reducing carbon footprint, driver shortage, tighter legislation, imminent technology advances in alternative fuels and, today more than ever before, increasing customer demand.

The firm’s new ‘Blue Ocean Home Delivery Pods’ offer temperature-controlled and dry freight fleets running 3.5-tonners the ability to carry the same weight of goods in two journeys, that a traditional vehicle delivers in three.

This significant increase, combined with a truly aerodynamic design, improved functionality for drivers, the use of both carbon fibre and recycled plastic, compatibility with diesel, electric and hybrid chassis plus an unparalleled 10-year structural warranty, provides Penso an opportunity to deliver huge efficiency savings for supermarkets, parcel delivery firms and logistics fleets.

The launch is the result of more than 10 years of research by Penso and a £16.3 million investment – half from Penso and half from government matched-funding via the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) and Innovate UK. This has helped to fund the installation of a flexible automated robot assembly line housed in a brand new 50,000 ft2 facility which can produce a finished body every 42 minutes.

Production is commencing with two initial models – an e-Grocery Pod as an upgrade for supermarket deliveries and an e-Delivery Pod, based on a Luton van. Ultimately, 30 different pods will be offered including medium- and high-roof van body variants with a choice of single and double compartments, twin rear doors and side-door loading configurations, plus tail-lift options. These will be built across different wheelbases and vehicle platforms to suit a variety of applications and fleets.

Bremen-based conveyor technology specialist cellumation has been granted €2 million in EU funding for further development.

This year, 44 young companies and their innovations were selected by the EIC from close to 2,000 applicants from 40 countries. The funding acknowledges the ‘celluveyor’ as a groundbreaking European innovation for flexible material flow in intelligent logistics centres and factories. “We see the selection as an enormous confirmation and recognition of our work and a confirmation of the great potential of our technology,” says cellumation’s CEO Dr.-Ing. Hendrik Thamer. “The funds will especially be used for the further development of our technology. This will enable us to significantly expand the flexibility and the ap-plication possibilities of the celluveyor.”

The system is based on small hexagonal conveyor modules, each with three particularly arranged wheels. They allow objects to be conveyed in any direction. The conveyor modules with their hexagonal structures can be simply clicked together and combined to any desired conveyor system geometry. Through the single wheel control, the wheels are controlled individually, this enables objects to be moved freely and almost all conveying tasks can be realized with one system. In addition to a flexible design and demand-oriented expansion of the conveyor system, the celluveyor offers increased throughput and up to 95 percent space savings compared to conventional conveyor solutions.