Jungheinrich Unveils New Driverless Transport System

Feb 23, 2013 Warehousing Ireland Materials Handling 0

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Jungheinrich’s new Auto Pallet Mover EKS 210a represents an automated truck solution which substantially enhances the efficiency of logistics processes.

At the upcoming LogiMAT 2013 exhibition Jungheinrich is unveiling a new Auto Pallet Mover (APM) — type EKS 210a — a driverless order picker for the warehouse environment. “The truck offers an outstanding alternative which can be employed for any kind of standardised transport operation,” explains Dr Martin Schwaiger, Head of APM at Jungheinrich. The new driverless transport system from Jungheinrich is designed primarily to perform recurring transport assignments — for example, moving items from incoming goods or from the production line to a specified transfer point.

The Auto Pallet Mover can be integrated into existing warehouse management systems. “Integrating an APM in the respective infrastructure is fast, easy and safe,” says Schwaiger. The truck uses reflectors and laser navigation in the warehouse to achieve precise orientation down to the millimetre. He continues: “The modular system design offers great flexibility, making it easy to add further trucks to the system.”

Integrated Personnel Safety System

The EKS  210a comes standard-equipped with a personnel safety system consisting of a laser scanner mounted in the direction of drive plus built-in sensors in the load direction. “These essentially surround the APM with a protective field,” relates Schwaiger. This field permanently checks the truck’s environment and stops the APM whenever an obstacle crops up. According to Schwaiger, this means the driverless transport system is “designed to cope perfectly with mixed operations”.

The vehicle control and route planning systems ensure excellent coordination of vehicles and an optimised flow of traffic. The APM can be operated either as a stand-alone solution or in the context of a warehouse management system. Reliable, tried-and-tested series-production trucks from Jungheinrich serve as the base vehicles for every Auto Pallet Mover. Apart from eliminating warehouse errors, the key advantages of this materials handling solution consist of the ease with which customers can customise or add to it. As with Jungheinrich’s series-production trucks, APMs are integrated into the company’s quick-to-respond, world-wide service network.

Jungheinrich ranks among the world’s leading companies in the material handling equipment, warehousing and material flow engineering sectors. The company is an intralogistics service and solution provider with manufacturing operations, which offers its customers a comprehensive range of forklift trucks, shelving systems, services and advice. Jungheinrich shares are traded on all German stock exchanges.

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