Clark Europe's European headquarters and spare parts center are located in Duisburg, just a stone's throw away from the A40 motorway, the so-called Ruhrschnellweg. Here, a wide variety of storage options, including a three-storey shelving system based on the META Clip shelving system, guarantee professional storage and the fastest possible picking of a wide range of individual parts.

With more than 100 years of experience in the industrial truck business and over 1.3 million forklift trucks sold worldwide, Clark is one of the global market leaders in industrial trucks. The forklift specialist's product portfolio consists of electric and IC engine-powered forklift trucks with load capacities from 1.5 to 8 tons, warehouse trucks and a comprehensive range of industrial truck services. Four head offices around the globe manage the operating business of the industrial truck specialist. Clark Europe GmbH in Duisburg looks after the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions with around 168 Clark dealers in a total of 58 countries.

The so-called International Spare Parts Center in Duisburg, the spare parts center of Clark Europe, is a state-of-the-art complex in which around 23,000 components for more than 100,000 product applications are stored on an area of 1,600 m². All orders received at this spare parts center by 5 p.m. are delivered the following day by 12 noon. In addition to a shuttle system for the smallest spare parts and pallet racking as buffer and pallet storage, a three-storey shelving system based on the META Clip shelving system with structural steel components forms a supporting pillar of this distribution center.

Comprehensive planning of the shelving and steel construction
The new shelving system, including the steel construction, was added to an existing two-storey shelving system, which meant that META had to carry out comprehensive planning, including several staircases and pallet transfer stations. Structural adaptations to the seismic zone 0 that applies there were also necessary. The aim was to provide tailor-made and flexible storage for a wide variety of article groups with maximum space utilization on three levels and short order picking routes.

Three-storey shelving racking system
The result is a three-storey shelving system based on the META Clip shelving system with structural steel components. The META Clip shelving racks demonstrate their many advantages in warehouses. They are designed so that they can be expanded into multi-storey shelving systems. With numerous accessories, META Clip also offers organization options for different stored goods and can be easily adapted to changing requirements.

A wide variety of individual parts such as filters, spark plugs, service kits, glass panes, lighting accessories or electrical components are stored on the lower two levels. The racking system was statically designed for 2,140 large shelves, which, with a shelf width of 1,300 x 600 mm and 1,000 x 600 mm, offer flexibility even for larger and sensitive stored goods. Drawers with matching plastic boxes for storage are also used here and cable pulls on perforated wall hooks are provided on the side walls in the central aisle.

The top level with a complete chipboard cover is intended for storing the large overhead guard and cab parts for a wide variety of forklift variants. With a permissible load of 500 kg per m², the top level is designed for these heavier stored goods on special pallets. For fire protection reasons, to speed up smoke extraction and to allow daylight to reach the lower level, gratings were used as flooring throughout the central main aisle.

"The requirement was for a tailor-made multi-storey system in which we could flexibly store a wide variety of spare parts. We found the ideal provider in META," explains Torsten Schiebold, Team Leader Warehouse at Clark Europe. "The overall cooperation and contact with the field and office staff, including the professional assembly team, was very good and we were able to develop a suitable and flexible warehouse concept in close coordination."

The article appeared in materialfluss 11-12/20.