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Tag: warehouse automation

EuroSort introduces ‘smart’ sorter

Posted on by Keith McKinley

By adding an obstacle in its chute to increase the amount of sorter exits from 300 to 400 on the same footprint, EuroSort is introducing  a ground-breaking technology that narrows the required width of a sorter chute by up to 40%. This means either a 40% increase in sorter exits without having to increase sorter size, or the installation of a sorter in a much smaller space.

In a market where available floor space is the major restricting factor on the size of a sorter, you have to come up with creative ideas to get the maximum out of every available square meter of the warehouse. EuroSort is already well known for producing durable high capacity sorters on a small footprint, but is now making a huge step in what was believed to be impossible.

It has now introduced its next-generation chutes, featuring pitch reducing technology. This means that either the sorter itself can drastically reduce in size and budget, or up to 40% more exits can be fitted in the same footprint. EuroSort describes the development as “a massive improvement for our customers and a revolution in the automated sortation industry”.

By implementing a pneumatically controlled ‘door’ into the chutes, the forward movement of a discharged item can be altered. When an item is bound for the chute this door is linked to, it activates, rising up and creating  a barrier in the chute. This stops the item in its forward slide and guides it down into the designated exit. The result is that, for example, 400 chutes could fit in the same footprint as 300 chutes previously. This innovation enhances the flexibility while maintaining the capacity, reliability and accuracy that EuroSort sorters are known for.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” says Patrick van Haaster, CEO EuroSort. “We are very proud our own R&D team managed to take this from an idea to realisation and implementation. To see a thought come to life and actually perform the way you had in mind is great.

“Our Pitch Reducer is already successfully up and running at one of the largest fashion companies in Eastern Europe, serving over 1,800 stores in 25 countries. We are grateful for the trust they put in us and our new development.”

The benefits of EuroSort’s Smart Chute include:

  • Up to 40% more exists on the same footprint
  • Less materials needed
  • Less floorspace needed
  • Higher efficiency for operators thanks to less walking distance
  • Less strain on operators to serve multiple chutes on small footprint
  • Fits most EuroSort sorter solutions
  • Very limited effect on capacity
  • No impact on versatility and reliability
  • No impact on sorting accuracy

Leuze sensor offers measuring and switching

Posted on by David Priestman

The innovative ODT 3C sensor from Leuze can handle both measuring and switching tasks. The new 2-in-1 solution is thus suitable for a wide range of automated industrial applications.

Is there an object on the conveyor belt? If yes: What is its position or distance to the machine? These are typical issues that need to be addressed in a wide range of industrial applications and processes. In the past, to solve this problem required the use of multiple sensors. With the new ODT 3C from Leuze, only a single device is needed: The innovative sensor can transmit both switching and measuring information to the machine control system, which makes it an efficient and economical 2-in-1 solution.

Flexibility with a single sensor

The ODT 3C transmits measurement values and extensive diagnostic data via IO-Link. The data includes temperature values, warnings, and signal quality. It features impressive black-and-white behaviour (< ±3mm at 150mm). The operating range can be easily adjusted via the teach button, remote signal or IO-Link.

The new Leuze sensor also offers impressive functional reliability: Active ambient light suppression prevents faulty switching, even when exposed to direct light from LED building lighting systems. LEDs that are easily visible from all sides allow you to quickly read the status of the ODT 3C. Two independent switching outputs and sensor models with warning output or a small light spot (pinpoint) round of the sensor’s functions. This enables plant operators to use the ODT 3C flexibly in a wide range of applications.

Application example from food industry

A machine is rolling off dough for baked goods. The ODT 3C sensor is pointing down onto the dough. It sends a distance value to the parent control. The goal is to regulate the dough within an optimal distance range of 100–120mm.

If the sensor detects a measurement value outside the target range, the conveyor belt motors adjust the speed of the conveyor accordingly. The measurement value is evaluated in the process data via IO-Link. In addition, diagnostic data is transmitted to the controller via IO-Link for Industry 4.0 purposes.

 

SSI Schaefer’s IKEA picking solution nominated for IFOY Award

Posted on by David Priestman

Flat Pack Picking is a unique, automated turnkey system solution, from a single source. The concept, developed by SSI Schaefer in partnership with Inter IKEA Intralogistics, IKEA Purchasing Services GmbH, has been successfully trailed in Germany and is now nominated for this year´s IFOY (International Intralogistics and Forklift Truck of the Year) Award.

The unique automated turnkey system solution has been developed to ensure safe, efficient, and volume-optimized palletizing of heavy and bulky items, typical for the furniture sector. The picking module with gantry robots can facilitate efficient handling of an extremely diverse range of items, freeing employees from non-ergonomic tasks and features a high degree of scalability.

“The development of the Flat Pack Picking solution, designed specifically for the furniture industry, is an example of how we at SSI Schaefer continuously innovate to support companies within various markets. We strive to address industry issues and to increase efficiency while improving the working conditions of warehouse personnel”, explains Notker Steigerwald, Head of Business Unit Logistics Solutions at SSI Schaefer.

“Innovating for increased efficiency, accuracy and sustainability is at the core of our mission at IKEA Intralogistics. The development and successful implementation of the Flat Pack Picking solution in Dortmund is a great example of how technology can support these ambitions, for instance by enabling a shift from manual to more value-added tasks for our co-workers”, says Julien Weiß, Automation & Design Leader, Inter IKEA Intralogistics at IKEA Purchasing Services GmbH.

The concept has been nominated for the IFOY Award 2022 and will undergo the three-stage IFOY audit during the IFOY Test Days on March 18–23, 2022.

The Flat Pack Picking solution

The solution is at the forefront of technology and IKEA is the first furniture retailer to automate the picking of large products in the field of customer distribution. By installing the Flat Pack Picking solution it will be possible to create a more ergonomic work environment for co-workers and increase the overall productivity of customer distribution units.

Four automatically replenished picking robots will pick for the customer distribution operations. The solution will serve as a pre-pick function to bring heavy products to co-workers. One of the biggest benefits is the modularity of the system. This enables an easy implementation. It is a combination of proven industrial solutions in the market that are customized to IKEAs needs.

 

B&Q updates NDC with automated tote shuttle solution

Posted on by David Priestman

Logistex has completed a £10m project for B&Q at its Distribution Centre in Worksop, UK. The solution brings together a range of technologies including a pallet decant system, Goods To Person (GTP) stations, a tote shuttle system, and robotic palletisers. The system is operated by Wincanton on behalf of B&Q and represents a long-term strategic alliance between the two companies.

Due to significant growth plans, B&Q needed to increase its Worksop site capability to 2,100,000 cases dispatched per week. Working closely with B&Q, the Logistex Solution Design Engineers developed a solution that would meet these expansion needs whilst also improving site efficiency. Simulation and emulation were used to prove performance and minimise risk to the operation.

The decant process efficiency was increased by 86% with the addition of 16 automatically fed pallet decant stations. These ergonomically designed stations are used to decant palletised cases of product to totes, after which they are conveyed to a shuttle system for storage. The Savoye X-PTS shuttle system consists of 54,000 tote storage locations, serviced by 140 shuttles and 10 high speed lifts. The X-PTS has a combined throughput capability of 4,000 totes in and 4,000 totes out per hour.

Four Goods To Person (GTP) stations are serviced via the X-PTS, with each GTP station having its own tote sequence buffer to guarantee maximum throughput whatever the order size. Each GTP station operates at a pick rate of in excess of 800 cases per hour which is a threefold increase on the existing trolley pick system performance.

Order totes picked at the GTP station are returned to the X-PTS to await completion of the order. Once complete, order totes are released to a robot palletiser system capable of palletising in excess of 1,000 totes per hour.

The X-PTS is also used as a replenishment buffer for additional picking areas in the warehouse.

The new decant, X-PTS and palletiser solution is controlled by the Logistex warehouse management and control system, LWS Reflex, to guarantee continuous high performance, high availability, and local support.

This project showcases the successful partnership between Logistex and Savoye which has already resulted in further new project orders.

Jerry Woodhouse, Chairman at Logistex, says; “The new B&Q Tote Handling System has been a great project to be involved in. The principal stakeholders of B&Q, Wincanton, Logistex and Savoye have all worked together with a phenomenal can-do attitude to successfully deliver the project despite the challenges presented by the Covid Pandemic. The Savoye tote shuttle system integrated by Logistex and controlled by our WMS LWS Reflex has enabled B&Q to significantly upscale the operational capabilities of their NDC at Worksop.”

 

TGW presents new digital services at LogiMAT

Posted on by David Priestman

The TGW Logistics Group is equipped with modern technology for the digital age. The systems integrator will be presenting the full spectrum of its digital services at the LogiMAT intralogistics trade fair (31 May to 2 June) in Stuttgart. Those services cover the entire lifecycle of a system, including everything from planning to implementation to live operation. The spotlight will be on innovations that help companies boost their competitiveness.

“TGW can look back on more than 50 years of experience in the development of mechatronic modules and has successfully implemented hundreds of projects worldwide as a systems integrator. Thanks to our ever-expanding range of digital services, our customers are in an excellent position to face the demands of tomorrow,” emphasises Matthias Stötzner, Director Sales at TGW Systems Integration. “TGW combines expertise in software and systems to offer customised, state-of-the-art end-to-end solutions.”

The TGW booth at LogiMAT applies an open communication concept. In addition to modules, systems and solutions, reference projects for notable customers such as Coop, PUMA, Fource and Engelbert Strauss will also be highlighted.

The TGW Digital Lifecycle’s services and products cover the three phases of planning, realisation and Lifetime Services. More than 600 IT specialists look after over 500 systems around the globe. They develop new applications, implement tools and maintain logistics centres during live operation.

The topics of efficiency, transparency and a short return on investment take centre stage in this context. An integration project’s lifecycle takes place digitally, from the first data analysis all the way to final acceptance. Digital services also ensure optimum performance during live operation. Thus, TGW offers maximum availability and reliability, in keeping with the motto “We keep your business running”.

To that end, TGW uses a variety of both well-established and newly-developed resources. Examples of digital tools for system design include 3D layouts, simulations and intelligent data analyses. In the realisation phase, TGW employs agile implementation, emulation and performance checks. In regard to operation, customers profit from virtual testing environments, remote services, proactive monitoring and more. The multi-award-winning picking robot Rovolution boasts a digital twin: a complete digital representation that grows alongside the physical installation and is connected to it in real time.

Companies that put their trust in TGW also have the advantage of receiving everything from a single source. Unlike software providers, the systems integrator plans and implements systems, produces the mechatronic components and also handles the complex software integration. This enables TGW to gather data from all applications, products and solutions and evaluate, visualise and optimise them in a uniform system.

The use of modern technology such as artificial intelligence is becoming more and more important in this context. Future scenarios can be modelled with the help of self-learning algorithms. “Interconnected intra-logistics systems that are capable of learning and self-optimisation will play a huge role in the very near future. Our customers profit greatly from these advantages,” affirms Johann Steinkellner, CEO Central Europe at TGW.

Autonomously picking robot relies on cutting-edge solution

Posted on by David Priestman

Due to the industry standard 4.0, digitalisation, automation and networking of systems and facilities are becoming the predominant topics in production and thus also in logistics. Industry 4.0 pursues the increasing optimisation of processes and workflows in favour of productivity and flexibility and thus the saving of time and costs. Robotic systems have become the driving force for automating processes.

Through the Internet of Things (IoT), robots are becoming increasingly sensitive, autonomous, mobile and easier to operate. More and more they are becoming an everyday helper in factories and warehouses. Intelligent imaging techniques are playing an increasingly important role in this.

To meet the growing demands in scaling and changing production environments towards fully automated and intelligently networked production, the company ONTEC Automation GmbH from Naila in Bavaria has developed an autonomously driving robotic assistance system. The “Smart Robot Assistant” uses the synergies of mobility and automation: it consists of a powerful and efficient intralogistics platform, a flexible robot arm and a robust 3D stereo camera system from the Ensenso N series by IDS Imaging Development Systems GmbH.

#The solution is versatile and takes over monotonous, weighty set-up and placement tasks, for example. The autonomous transport system is suitable for floor-level lifting of Euro pallets up to container or industrial format as well as mesh pallets in various sizes with a maximum load of up to 1,200kg. For a customer in the textile industry, the AGV (Automated Guided Vehicle) is used for the automated loading of coil creels.

For this purpose, it picks up pallets with yarn spools, transports them to the designated creel and loads it for further processing. Using a specially developed gripper system, up to 1,000 yarn packages per 8-hour shift are picked up and pushed onto a mandrel of the creel. The sizing scheme and the position of the coils are captured by an Ensenso 3D camera (N45 series) installed on the gripper arm.

Pallets loaded with industrial yarn spools are picked up from the floor of a predefined storage place and transported to the creel location. There, the gripper positions itself vertically above the pallet. An image trigger is sent to the Ensenso 3D camera from the N45 series, triggered by the in-house software ONTEC SPSComm. It networks with the vehicle’s PLC and can thus read out and pass on data.

In the application, SPSComm controls the communication between the software parts of the vehicle, gripper and camera. This way, the camera knows when the vehicle and the grabber are in position to take a picture. This takes an image and passes on a point cloud to a software solution from ONTEC based on the standard HALCON software, which reports the coordinates of the coils on the pallet to the robot.

The robot can then accurately pick up the coils and process them further. As soon as the gripper has cleared a layer of the yarn spools, the Ensenso camera takes a picture of the packaging material lying between the yarn spools and provides point clouds of this as well. These point clouds are processed similarly to provide the robot with the information with which a needle gripper removes the intermediate layers.

“This approach means that the number of layers and finishing patterns of the pallets do not have to be defined in advance and even incomplete pallets can be processed without any problems,” explains Tim Böckel, software developer at ONTEC. “The gripper does not have to be converted for the use of the needle gripper. For this application, it has a normal gripping component for the coils and a needle gripping component for the intermediate layers.”

For this task, the mobile use for 3D acquisition of moving and static objects on the robot arm, the Ensenso 3D camera is suitable due to its compact design. The Ensenso N 45’s 3D stereo electronics are completely decoupled from the housing, allowing the use of a lightweight plastic composite as the housing material. The low weight facilitates the use on robot arms such as the Smart Robotic Assistant.

The camera can also cope with demanding environmental conditions. “Challenges with this application can be found primarily in the different lighting conditions that are evident in different rooms of the hall and at different times of the day,”

Tim Böckel describes the situation. Even in difficult lighting conditions, the integrated projector projects a high-contrast texture onto the object to be imaged by means of a pattern mask with a random dot pattern, thus supplementing the structures on featureless homogenous surfaces. This means that the integrated camera meets the requirements exactly.

“By pre-configuring within NxView, the task was solved well.” This sample programme with source code demonstrates the main functions of the NxLib library, which can be used to open one or more stereo and colour cameras whose image and depth data are visualised. Parameters such as exposure time, binning, AOI and depth measuring range can – as in this case – be adjusted live for the matching method used.

The matching process empowers the Ensenso 3D camera to recognise a very high number of pixels, including their position change, by means of the auxiliary structures projected onto the surface and to create complete, homogeneous depth information of the scene from this. This in turn ensures the necessary precision with which the Smart Robot Assistant proceeds. Other selection criteria for the camera were, among others, the standard vision interface Gigabit Ethernet and the global shutter 1.3 MP sensor.

“The camera only takes one image pair of the entire pallet in favour of a faster throughput time, but it has to provide the coordinates from a relatively large distance with an accuracy in the millimetre range to enable the robot arm to grip precisely,” explains Matthias Hofmann, IT specialist for application development at ONTEC.

“We therefore need the high resolution of the camera to be able to safely record the edges of the coils with the 3D camera.” The localisation of the edges is important in order to be able to pass on as accurate as possible the position from the centre of the spool to the gripper. Furthermore, the camera is specially designed for use in harsh environmental conditions. It has a screwable GPIO connector for trigger and flash and is IP65/67 protected against dirt, dust, splash water or cleaning agents.

The Ensenso SDK enables hand-eye calibration of the camera to the robot arm, allowing easy translation or displacement of coordinates using the robot pose. In addition, by using the internal camera settings, a “FileCam” of the current situation is recorded at each pass, i.e. at each image trigger.

This makes it possible to easily adjust any edge cases later on, in this application for example unexpected lighting conditions, obstacles in the image or also an unexpected positioning of the coils in the image. The Ensenso SDK also allows the internal camera LOG files to be stored and archived for possible evaluation.

ONTEC also uses these “FileCams” to automatically check test cases and thus ensure the correct functioning of all arrangements when making adjustments to the vision software. In addition, various vehicles can be coordinated and logistical bottlenecks minimised on the basis of the control system specially developed by ONTEC.

Different assistants can be navigated and act simultaneously in a very confined space. By using the industrial interface tool ONTEC SPSComm, even standard industrial robots can be safely integrated into the overall application and data can be exchanged between the different systems.

Further development of the system is planned, among other things, in terms of navigation of the autonomous vehicle. “With regard to vehicle navigation for our AGV, the use of IDS cameras is very interesting. We are currently evaluating the use of the new Ensenso S series to enable the vehicle to react even more flexibly to obstacles, for example, classify them and possibly even drive around them,” says Tim Böckel, software developer at ONTEC, outlining the next development step.

ONTEC’s own interface configuration already enables the system to be integrated into a wide variety of Industry 4.0 applications, while the modular structure of the autonomously moving robot solution leaves room for adaptation to a wide variety of tasks. In this way, it not only serves to increase efficiency and flexibility in production and logistics, but in many places also literally contributes to relieving the workload of employees.

ONTEC Automation GmbH is a system provider for integrated and innovative automation systems, plants and special machines for industrial production. The business units consist of Technical Textile Solutions, Automation Solutions, Smart Robotic Solutions and Electric Switchboard Solutions.

The company’s expertise with 25 years of experience is reflected in innovative, customer-oriented solutions along the entire value chain and includes robotics, industrial image processing, software development, electrical engineering and mechanics.

 

New Smart Pallet Mover promises performance boost

Posted on by David Priestman

It is not the performance of modern production machines but their material supply that promises the greatest potential for further productivity increases in industrial companies today. With the new Smart Pallet Mover (SPM), Interroll has launched an awarded solution that can be adapted as a flexible and modular pallet management system to meet a wide range of application requirements in industrial manufacturing.

The customer and user benefits of the Smart Pallet Mover are impressive: Those who use it can now finally automate work processes in front of the machine production to avoid manual activities in safety-critical areas and manage the pallet work flow by buffering, sorting, sequencing and carrying at the right time to deliver significant improvement of the machine down time optimising the return on investment (ROI) of the machine production cells.

This not only eliminates costly production interruptions for material supply to machines, but also the risk of accidents during operation. In this way, productivity increases of up to 30% are possible compared to manual operation.

The Smart Pallet Mover is a pallet management solution for automating pallet transport in the vicinity of manufacturing machines and for production-related picking and sequencing processes, which can also be used in Industry 4.0 environments. The SPM is designed to transport, sort and buffer boxes or pallets weighing up to 1,000kg.

It represents a mobile and autonomously acting material flow system that can be used, for example, as a cost-efficient supplement or substitute for forklifts or automated guided vehicles (AGVs).

The Smart Pallet Mover solution consists of various modules. The centre of the solution is a mobile unit (SM1000 Mover) that runs underneath non-driven conveyor sections and moves pallets lying on them. A transfer car (SM2000 Transfer Car) which moves on a rail can transport pallets between parallel conveyor sections.

“With this platform solution, which is unparalleled on the world market, we are tapping into the great productivity potential offered by production-related pallet management automation for our customers and users,” explains Jens Strüwing, Executive Vice President Products & Technology at Interroll. “A user-friendly 3D online tool, the SPM Layout Configurator & Pallet Flow Simulator, makes it possible to configure a system quickly and easily as well as simulate planned operation on the computer.”

The flexibility of this innovative solution, the use of proven technologies and a very short payback period ensure that users can significantly strengthen their competitiveness. As with all Interroll products, the Smart Pallet Mover is extremely easy to install, operate and maintain. The modular plug-and-play solution can therefore be put into operation without lengthy interruptions to production, even during modernisation projects.

Networking capabilities based on global data standards such as REST API and JSON ensure maximum compatibility and ease of use. The conveyor modules can be reconfigured very easily if required, and height-adjustable supports allow the system to be installed even on uneven floors.

Before the official market launch, the new solution had already won two internationally renowned awards. For example, the Smart Pallet Mover won the Red Dot Award, Product Design 2021, for its exceptional design quality and degree of innovation. At the same time, the solution was chosen by the independent experts of the International Intralogistics and Forklift Truck of the Year Award (IFOY AWARD) in March 2021 as a finalist of this globally renowned intralogistics award.

With this new offering, Interroll is taking into account the fact that production managers are increasingly focusing on material handling, as shown, for example, by the survey “Production Logistics in Medium-Sized Businesses,” which Interroll published last year: The average degree of automation of internal material transport at the companies surveyed was only 53%. Almost every tenth company (9%) had a degree of automation of less than 25%.

CLICK HERE to view a video of the new solution.

Dematic hosts live customer service broadcast

Posted on by David Priestman

Intelligent automation specialist Dematic is inviting customers and journalists to a live broadcast on 10th March featuring Dematic Customer Service and the benefits of analytic solutions.

Dematic Customer Service offers a wide variety of innovative service solutions such as advanced predictive maintenance capabilities for keeping your equipment, software, and systems operating at peak performance. At the event, experts from the Dematic Customer Service and Global Software Analytics teams will showcase their analytic solutions and provide information about Dematic InSights, a cloud-based analytics platform for optimising warehouse operations and condition monitoring.

Alberto Rostagno, VP Customer Service EMEA, adds: “Dematic Customer Service plays a vital role in maintaining and optimizing warehouse efficiency, ensuring facilities are operating with minimum unplanned downtime and managing risks across one or multiple sites. Traditional customer maintenance services are enhanced by Dematic InSights and its remote support capabilities.”

Customers benefit from the increased control of their warehouse operation systems – and from a greater ability to master growth, handle peak season demands, and accommodate new technology. “With our analytics tool, customers have better access to their data and better visibility into their systems so they can enact action plans to improve their operations. This way, Dematic InSights allows customers to be more proactive in addressing potential issues before they become truly disruptive,” explains Andy Bruinsma, Director Digital Solutions at Dematic, who will be one of the speakers.

During the live broadcast, experts will present the current Dematic InSights dashboard modules. These range from drill-down views of system and subsystem availability tracking to elaborate visualisations of operator performance, subsystem throughput, and equipment fault analysis. The presentation will also include a demonstration of specific case stories of customers who have significantly optimised their operational or maintenance processes with Dematic InSights.

The live sessions starting at 10:00 GMT will be held in English and translated into French, Italian, and Spanish. Participants will receive live support from Dematic experts during the presentations and will be able to address specific questions at dedicated Q&A sessions. To see the full agenda and to register free of charge, visit https://www.dematic.com/peak-performance/.

Element Logic ready for global growth

Posted on by David Priestman

Element Logic recently attained global distribution rights for sales and implementation of AutoStore, which it says is an important and logical step towards supporting international customers and keeping its role as the world’s largest AutoStore distributor.

“We are excited to expand our operations globally,” Håvard Hallås says, Chief Commercial Officer at Element Logic.

Element Logic is the world’s first and largest AutoStore distributor and has been a valued AutoStore-partner for decades.

“We have believed in AutoStore as the best warehouse automation system since our first installation in 2005. Having achieved a successful expansion to several European countries, we now set our ambition to support customers wherever they are and to be the preferred automation partner globally,” Dag-Adler Blakseth says, CEO at Element Logic.

“Element Logic has been an important local and regional partner of AutoStore since our start in 2003. We are delighted to now introduce them as one of our global partners and we know they will live up to our expectations as a global partner for distribution and system integration,” Karl Johan Lier says, CEO of AutoStore.

“We look forward to working with Element Logic as it will undoubtedly continue to play a key role in increasing AutoStore’s presence all over the world,” he adds.

Markets with international growth potential

Some markets stand out as potential next steps for Element Logic when expanding beyond Europe.

“We see great potential in the US and Asian markets. We already have a few projects in the US that we are excited to deliver in 2022,” Hallås explains.

Another natural place to start when going global is our global customers. Today, Element Logic handles and delivers solutions to several global customers, and it makes sense to open offices in these markets.

“This should be good news to our customers with operations and potential outside Europe,” Hallås says.

The Element way – globally

“We continuously work to find out where it makes sense for Element Logic to expand,” Hallås says.

“Our future growth will come from both our existing and new markets. We plan to increase the growth from new markets at a sustainable pace. We could have expanded beyond Europe at an earlier stage, but it was essential to draw upon experiences from the European market and bring with us a profitable business model,” he continues.

The growth rate Element Logic has experienced in the last years is amongst the highest in the industry.

Quality and growth

“We have a solid market position in the Scandinavian market. We will keep growing this, and our European position, in the coming years,” Blakseth says.

By developing new technology and continuously putting efforts into the European market, Element Logic gains significant advantages when expanding to new markets. The goal always has been, and always will be, to create solutions of the highest quality for customers with growth potential.

Element Logic and AutoStore have an established brand and a good reputation beyond the European borders.

“The key reason for expanding now is that we have learned how to grow sustainably, we have the scale to grow, and most importantly, the foundation is in place for us to bring relevant partners on board,” Hallås says.

“David and Goliath” work together in the warehouse

Posted on by David Priestman

STILL will be presenting its new ACH series to the general public for the first time at the LogiMAT trade fair in Stuttgart from May 31 to June 2, 2022, in hall 10, stand B41/B51.

In a realistic application scenario, the Hamburg-based intralogistics specialist will be demonstrating how the versatile and flexible automated mobile robots (AMR) can work in symbiosis with automated vertical conveyors such as reach trucks or narrow-aisle trucks. The result: a new form of modern division of labour that will raise transport processes in warehouses or production to a completely new level.

During the international exhibition, STILL will be demonstrating processes that take place in this way or very similarly every day in almost every warehouse or production hall: The retrieval of semi-finished products from the high-bay warehouse, their transport for further processing, their subsequent return to the high-bay warehouse and the final storage of the finished products. All processes that used to be very time-consuming and/or labour-intensive in the past can now be made much more cost-effective and efficient thanks to the optimised workflows.

“We achieve this process optimisation through a new form of division of labour in which each machine takes on exactly the tasks for which it has been optimised. The automated vertical conveyor stores or retrieves goods in the high-bay warehouse and our new automated mobile robots handle the horizontal transport. Thanks to their very compact dimensions, they are much more manoeuvrable in the warehouse or on the production floor and can therefore easily reach almost any position in production – right up to the production worker on the production line,” explains Torsten Wiecker, Vice President Brand Management STILL EMEA.

New ACH series

STILL launched its new AMR trucks in January 2022 in three versions. The ACH 06 model, with a load capacity of 600 kg and dimensions of 956x730x240mm, is particularly suitable for the automated transport of lighter goods. It can pick up or place goods up to an underride height of 270mm. When loaded, the small runabout reaches a travel speed of 1.5m/s.

The medium-sized version, the ACH 10, measures 1182x832x260mm and can transport loads of 1,000kg. If you need to transport even heavier loads automatically, you can go for the ACH 15.

The most powerful of the three models also measures 1182x832x260mm and is designed for loads up to 1,500kg. The pick-up and drop-off height of both the ACH 10 and the ACH 15 is 290mm. When loaded, the two larger variants reach a speed of up to 1.2m/s. The available loading area for the ACH 06 is 900x900mm. The other two models feature a loading platform with a surface area of 1200x1200mm.

All three models are powered by a Li-ion battery. This can be charged very conveniently via the charging station that is part of the system. The vehicles automatically dock onto the station as needed.

Numerous application possibilities

These features make the STILL AMR systems the ideal solution for the automated horizontal transport of goods. Thanks to state-of-the-art sensor technology, the innovative ACH series moves independently, proactively and safely in the warehouse – even in mixed operation with people and other industrial trucks.

The vehicles transport a great variety of load carriers on their platforms and can be adapted to a wide range of transfer points. Depending on the requirements, the AMR works independently or via a connection to the different software systems of the operators.

AMR vehicles also stand out when it comes to environmental protection. Due to their significantly lower dead weight compared to classic automated warehouse solutions, their energy consumption is noticeably reduced. In addition, their acquisition, operating and maintenance costs are very low. Therefore, they can be integrated into existing environments and systems very cost-effectively.

In combination with the good scalability and their high safety standard, the ACH series offers an attractive entry into automation for many industries, e.g. in parts supply for production, the automotive industry, logistics, medical manufacturing, the production of clothing or electronics or e-commerce.

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