Reliable arteries for intralogistics

In order to enable fast, reliable and error-free sorting, distribution and inspection of highly diverse goods such as parcels, bagged goods and bulky goods in large quantities, the Beumer Group is available to its customers as a system integrator from planning to commissioning," says Thomas Wiesmann, Sales Manager Sorting and Distribution Technology at the Beumer Group. "The product base includes modular high-performance sorting systems. This enables users to secure a competitive edge and be prepared for future growth in their own mail order business.

With the Beumer Group's versatile toggle switch sorters, mail order companies and service providers can ensure efficient, end-to-end processing of goods. Photo: Beumer Group

The Beumer Group has already implemented numerous projects together with partners from the intralogistics sector. Shuttle warehouses with a high storage and retrieval frequency of more than 10,000 units per hour are suitable for handling containers or cartons for A, B and C articles with high availability.

Crossbelt sorter for more than 10,000 containers per hour

A cross-belt sorter provides the link between the incoming goods area, the shuttle warehouse and the picking workstations as well as the outgoing goods area. This sorting solution achieves a very high distribution capacity of more than 10,000 bins per hour. Cross-belt sorters are ideal for the gentle handling of all types of products, regardless of size, shape and surface characteristics.

The cross-belt sorter consists of a row of moving flat belt conveyors. These are arranged at a 90-degree angle to the direction of travel so that they can feed the goods in and out in either the right or left direction. For this purpose, the products are transferred to the cross-belt conveyor at a speed matched to the sorter speed and the infeed angle. The reverse process takes place during discharge: The conveyor belt moves in the direction of discharge and is gently guided to the end point.

"With modular high-performance sorting systems, users are well prepared for future growth in their own mail order business"

Thomas Wiesmann Beumer Group

The Beumer Group equipped the sorter with modules for order picking workstations. Additional sensors are often installed to detect and correct any errors in order to further increase sorting accuracy. Complete order totes are automatically transported to goods issue, partial totes are returned from each module to the shuttle warehouse and empty totes are transported back to goods receipt for refilling.

High-performance conveyor technology for deep-freeze logistics center

La Lorraine Bakery Group's new logistics center concentrates all warehousing at one location in Nowy Dwòr Mazowiecki, Poland. A three-aisle, fully automated deep-freeze high-bay warehouse with more than 15,700 pallet spaces for double-deep storage of semi-finished and finished goods is directly connected to production. The three storage and retrieval machines ensure a handling capacity of more than 150 pallets per hour, with up to 3,600 pallet movements per day. A good 100 sales partners and retail chains with more than 4,000 supermarkets are supplied with a range of 450 articles from the logistics center implemented by SSI Schäfer.

In the new logistics center of La Lorraine Bakery in Poland, high-performance conveyor technology connects production with the high-bay warehouse, picking area and shipping. Photo: SSI Schäfer

The frozen goods are transported from the production area in the distribution center via a short conveyor line and a pallet loop with air locks to the transfer stations of the storage and retrieval machines, where they are picked up and stored. An eight-aisle rack storage system, which is supplied with replenishment from the high-bay warehouse, is used for picking mixed pallets and fast-moving items.

The picking area and the goods issue zone, in which a transfer trolley removes the shipping pallets from the pallet loop in sequential order on eleven gravity roller conveyors, are kept at a stable temperature of -19 °C throughout.

A key success factor of the system is the process control directly from SAP EWM, which SSI Schaefer tailored precisely to the requirements of La Lorraine.

4.8-kilometer conveyor line for electronic components

Avnet, one of the world's largest distributors of electronic components and computer products, has built a new logistics center in Poing near Munich, from which more than 30,000 individual items are dispatched every day. The logistics partner and supplier was Gebhardt Fördertechnik. In the logistics center, around 4.8 kilometers of conveyor technology ensure the fast transport of containers and cartons, a walking beam warehouse for buffering the stacked empty containers and a three-aisle shuttle warehouse with 12 multi-level shuttles for efficient and space-saving order processing and consolidation.

Once the goods have been collected by an employee, the containers with the goods are automatically transferred via a lifter to the conveyor line for transportation to the AutoStore container warehouse, shelf storage or directly to the shuttle warehouse or dispatch for order consolidation. An empty bin section above the work stations constantly supplies the employees with new bins from the empty bin store.

Intra says: clever!

It can make you dizzy if you sit on one of these boxes and let yourself be guided through a parcel center. Zack zack, once to the right, once to the left, faster and faster, without a break. There are no traffic jams here in the warehouses. But that changes once the parcel has landed in the truck and it's on its way. Wouldn't it be an idea to simply continue building the conveyor technology and... you just sit on it and roll along like this ahh that tickles ... argh stop stop ...

From the AutoStore warehouse, which in the first expansion stage offers 1,100 square meters of space for 48,000 containers, the 16 surrounding workstations are supplied with up to 680 containers per hour by robot.

In the area of the shelving racking system with 220,000 storage locations, employees pick several orders simultaneously according to the man-to-goods principle. The connection to the container conveyor system is made via several workstations.

Order consolidation prior to dispatch is based on a highly dynamic shuttle solution with the Storebiter 300 from Gebhardt. The shuttle system offers significantly increased storage and retrieval performance compared to conventional miniload solutions. In the dispatch area, 24 lanes lead to the automatic and manual packing area. The ready-to-ship cartons are transported via eight lanes for loading onto the trucks.

Crossbelt sorter in use at Swiss Post

Swiss Post has equipped its parcel centers in Härkingen and Frauenfeld with an additional, even more efficient parcel sorting system. The two sorting systems were installed by Vanderlande Industries.

The challenge in the projects was to increase the capacity of the system from 20,000 parcels to over 25,000 parcels per hour in the existing premises without having to install new unloading or loading points and without interrupting ongoing system operation.

Swiss Post has increased the sorting capacity in two parcel centers by 25 percent each by using cross sorters. Photo: Vanderlande Industries

The core element of the expansion of both systems is a central crossbelt sorter with a machine capacity of 11,250 parcels per hour, which was installed at a height of around six meters above the three existing tilt-tray sorters and connected to them using belt conveyors. Parcels are removed from neuralgic points in the existing system, fed to the new crossbelt sorter using belt conveyor technology and then returned to the existing system at various points.

The sorting and transport capacity of the new cross-belt sorter and the numerous infeeds and outfeeds with corresponding cycle belts create a large number of accumulation and transport stations. This reduces bottlenecks and increases performance. The direct pick-up of all items from manual coding and the removal of mis-sorted parcels and parcel returns also compensate for the system-related bottleneck of the old system. Compared to conventional sorters, the Crosssorter 1500 requires up to 80 percent less energy. The successful system expansion of the two parcel centers has increased capacity by 25 percent in each case - part of Swiss Post's e-commerce strategy.

Versatile pallet conveyor system for packaging coatings

Schekolin AG is based in Gamprin-Bendern in the Principality of Liechtenstein. The developer and manufacturer of packaging varnishes has built a new production and logistics hall, whose pallet conveyor system was realized by FAB GmbH. The production and storage areas are two separate fire compartments, whereby the area intended for the provision of the picked containers is located in the production area and therefore in a Class EX Zone 2 hazardous area. The basic components required for production are stored in IBC containers or on wooden pallets. Picking containers and returning empty containers to storage takes place directly in the new warehouse. For each production area, a fixed transfer point has been realized for the transfer of the basic components.

On the storage side, a reversible roller conveyor with ram protection feeds and removes the packs to and from a cross-travel carriage installed in the production area. With a capacity of at least 60 pallets per hour, this transfers the packs to one of the nine inclined roller conveyors or picks up a pack from the return conveyor.

The gravity roller conveyors, each designed to hold eight 1,200 millimetre long pallets, are fitted with brake rollers to ensure a uniform discharge speed. The pallets can be removed at the end of the lanes either by forklift or by hand pallet truck. The return conveyor is designed as an accumulation roller conveyor with eight accumulation positions. A fire door with a high-speed door mounted in front of it and integrated contour control is fitted to the passage opening on the storage side.

Fully automatic pallet conveyor system at Schekolin: The cross-travel carriage transfers a pack to one of the nine inclined roller conveyors. Photo: FAB

The pallet conveyor system reduces personnel deployment, enables easier handling and shorter distances, as the goods are provided directly in production, as well as faster, more efficient picking.

Reinhard Irrgang