Hannover Fair 98; Highlights from the big show
Cross-belt sorter (Axmann) runs up to 400 ft/min and loads or discharges from both sides. Inset: Pneumatic tilt tray sorter (Rapistan) features high-speed, low-cost, modular design.;Mastless forklift (JCB's Teletruk) reaches over floor-stored stock to access a rack position. Inset: Wave vehicle (Crown) elevates operator for stock picking and inventory tasks.;Mecalux (bottom) starts up Tijuana, Mexico plant. Mini-load (Haushahn) was one example (top right) of vertical powered storage. Inset, bottom:
By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 7/1/1998
Hannover Fair 98, this year's big industrial trade show in the German city by the same name, was again an immense event-more than 7,500 exhibitors, including merely 1,000 or so vendor stands at the CeMat, or materials handling and logistics, show sector. The photo below, part of the fairgrounds (3.4 million sq ft), helps put it all into perspective and scale for those who haven't seen it in person.This grand scale makes an editor's job that much more difficult-what to include, what to skip. Here's what Managing Editor, Tom Feare, saw as some of the highlights.
Industrial trucks. Forklift technology innovations were evident at a number of CeMat stands, as the lift truck manufacturers continue advancing the state of their art.
Perhaps most striking and unusual was a lift truck from JCB Industrial in England. This forklift's design (top photo, opposite page) departs radically from heretofore "conventional" thinking in counterbalanced lift trucks: It's a no mast vehicle, tradenamed the Teletruk.
Instead of a traditional vertical mast, this forklift has a two-stage, rear-mounted telescoping boom. Greater visibility looking forward is one user plus.
More importantly, when equipped with a forklift attachment (among several options) on the boom, the truck not only lifts but reaches forward for a load as well.
First rolled out last fall in the U.K., the Teletruk was unveiled for European users at Hannover. A decision on whether or not-and if so, when-to bring the Teletruk to the North American market is expected later this year. Contact JCB in Rocester, Staffordshire, England.
Innovative lift truck technology, again from outside Europe, was also shown by Crown. The Wave truck (photo, right)-with Wave standing for Work Assist Vehicle-elevates the operator and a load he normally carries by hand up to 7 ft. Travelling nearly twice as fast as average walking speed, this vehicle operates in tight spaces.
With an 84-in.-high lift capability, a typical male operator is at 161 in. standing on the platform. Load tray capacity is 100 lb, while load deck can carry up to 250 lb. Contact Crown in New Bremen, Ohio.
Conveyors. Among a wide variety of conveying technologies shown at CeMat were several sorters of differing designs for smaller package weights-from 24 to 33 lb. Included was a cross-belt sorter (Axmann, model 6130) that runs at speeds to 400 ft/min. and can sort 12,000 pieces per hour. Contact Axmann in Louisville, Ky.
Much less expensive with fewer moving parts than mechanical sorters, a pneumatic tilt tray sorter for small packages also was unveiled by Rapistan Systems, Mannesmann Dematic. Developed under a license of patented technology from UPS, this modular sorter (model 2475) uses a series of trays on a linear conveyor to divert small parcels left or right to multiple locations. Sorting capability extends to packages and envelopes of many shapes and sizes, and up to 24 lb. Simplicity in design, quiet performance, and few moving parts are keys to this technology. Each tray diverts with only a 2- to 3-lb "blast" of air pressure. Contact Rapistan in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Storage systems. One storage system exhibitor-Mecalux, based in Barcelona, Spain-had product news, of course. But the bigger news is of its plans to expand and penetrate deeper into Mexican and U.S. markets. The company is completing a Tijuana, Mexico plant this fall. South of the U.S. border is where most (70%) production will go initially, but look for Mecalux product north of the border, too, company execs suggest.
For high-density bulk storage on rack with maximized cube utilization as the goals, consider a nifty new technology from BT, a company known far more for its lift trucks. Dubbed the BT Radioshuttle, the product (photo, bottom right) is particularly suited for storage with a few or a limited number of order lines or SKUs (storage keeping units).
Here's how this remotely controlled (radio frequency signal) shuttle device works. Special racking is necessary, with "tunnels" underneath the palletized load storage positions. A shuttle unit runs along and through these storage "tunnels," moving to and stopping at a load position.
Once in position, built-in lifting pads in the shuttle can raise or lower a load. With a load held in position on the shuttle, it functions as a transporter, moving the load into or out of the racking. Automatic positioning sensors help guide the shuttle.
A standard forklift truck interfaces with the shuttle. Using a hand-held RF unit, a forklift operator can manage as many as nine shuttles, with several shuttles operating simultaneously.
AC lift trucks. At its CeMat stand, BT also drew a number of visitors (photo) who were interested in the company's AC (asynchronous) motor technology. The company is making AC motors available throughout its Reflex AC range of reach trucks, and at prices equivalent to trucks equipped with DC motors.
According to BT, the AC-equipped trucks have double the acceleration of its DC trucks, increasing worker productivity. With their support arm braking, the AC trucks also are 8% faster in maximum travel speed. Users also are said to be able to cut maintenance costs some 20% with AC motors with their brushless design. So, with some 600 orders booked for AC reach trucks between last fall and CeMat, demand and interest in these trucks reinforces BT's goal of phasing out DC model production, the company says.
Loading dock equipment. Europe's materials handling problems-and their solutions-are not always the same as those seen and practiced in North America or elsewhere on the planet.
Securing European tractor-trailer rigs to the loading dock offers one example. Often, there are under-ride guards on these rigs (much like the U.S. "ICC bar"). Yet, with distances to the next international border so short, the variety of trucks so great, and the number of nations in double-digit figures, there's little uniformity in guards.
Vehicle restraints based on "hooking" onto a guard can't provide protection across this spectrum of trucks and trailers. So what's the European solution? Secure by means of the trailer's rear wheel(s). Companies such as Rite-Hite (Europe), Loading Systems Deutschland, and Triax thus offer mechanical and/or hydraulic systems to move a metal bar or chock device into place to hold the wheel(s) and rig in place until it's safe to depart.
Storage systems, automated picking. Conventional wisdom has long held that because of the relative lack of industrial acreage in Europe across which to expand horizontally-in contrast to the U.S. with warehouse complexes in the open spaces of Ohio, Indiana, and elsewhere-European companies go up, literally, when they build warehousing.
"High-rise" automated storage units such as mini-load and unit-load AS/RS were in ample evidence at CeMat for storing, staging, and picking materials. Surprisingly, however, there were only a few vertical carousels (Pater Nosters) to be seen this year.
Making very efficient use of the storage cube as well as automating the order-filling process are among benefits gained from a different type of storage: Compact picking systems from such companies at CeMat as Knapp and P.E.E.M. The former showed, a-mong its other systems, an MDS (medium mover system) which packs up to 1200 different articles into a single module only 2.5 meters in length. With one picking robot running in the aisle, the MDS can makeup to 1,200 picks/ hour. Hospital pharmacies are one application of the technology. P.E.E.M., meanwhile, manufactures "picking automats" for a wide variety of products-depending upon the speed with which items move through a distribution point, item size, and other factors. The Pharmamat serves small stock rooms and pharmacies, for instance, while the VA-Pemat is for audio and video goods or for fragile items. Contact Knapp in Cartersville, Ga. and P.E.E.M. in Plainsboro, N.J.
Picking on a different scale is accomplished by Jeka's RackRunner. Bar coding, RFDC, and paperless picking are combined via a unit hung on a rail attached to pallet racking; the unit reads all bar codes until it arrives at the right pick location. There it displays article number and quantity to be picked. Contact Jeka via Integrated Technologies Group, Springfield, Tenn.
Overhead handling. Among the more traditional handling technologies shown at CeMat and of interest were electric wire rope hoists from Stahl. Offered in six sizes and covering the capacity range from 0.63 to 100 tons, these hoists have a "U" assembly form-which reduces the approach dimensions. Two-step hoist and travel gears (hoist and travel motors each with two speeds) are standard as is continuous temperature control of the hoist motor.
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