Autostore small parts warehouse for NITRAS Safety Products in Bedburg

Munich, September 2019: AS Arbeitsschutz GmbH is specialized in supplying technical wholesalers with personal protective equipment and work clothes since 1986. The owner-managed company attaches great importance to quality and reliability. With the manufacturer brand, NITRAS, AS Arbeitsschutz GmbH has successfully built up a renowned brand in the industry over the last 20 years.

At the headquarters in Bedburg, in their role as general contractor Hörmann Logistik is building an AutoStore small parts warehouse with two connected carousel workstations in an existing storage hall.

Concept

For the tailor-made design of the AutoStore® system, Hörmann Logistik carried out several system simulations during the planning phase. The daily operating times (8 hours on five days/week), together with other customer requirements and the simulation results, led to a system configuration with 9,200 bins measuring 649 mm x 449 mm x 330 mm (L x W x H) on 13 levels. Five autonomous red-line robots supply and dispose each of the two carousel workstations. One of them serves for goods receipt and one for goods issue/picking. If the need arises, both workstations can handle incoming and outgoing goods.

The AutoStore® system for AS Arbeitsschutz GmbH consists of an aluminium grid system covered on three sides with overall dimensions of 22.8 m x 12.9 m x 5.4 m (L x W x H). In the grid system, there are stacks of 13 bins each standing directly on the hall floor. The rail system (grid) is located above the bin stacks. There the five battery-powered, autonomous robots move, pick up bins, sort them and serve them to the picking modules. The maximum total weight of the bins is 35 kg with a net load of around 30 kg. A weighing unit at the ports prevents exceeding the maximum weight. Separating inserts in the bins allow flexible use for several articles at the same time.

Four pairs of wheels move the robots in two directions. Their geometry allows them to reach any position in the grid. Four of the robots are facing "north", one towards "south". They communicate via WLAN with the AutoStore control system, which assigns the transport orders to the individual robots. If the order load is low or the battery capacity is too low, the robots drive automatically to one of the charging stations located at the edge of the grid.

The AutoStore control is located on the adjacent service platform. The robots move on the grid with an acceleration of 0.8 m/s² and a speed of 3.1 m/s.

The system serves for 221 storage operations per day or 28 storage operations per hour. Goods issue assumes 441 stock removals per day or 55 stock removals per hour (per workplace).

AutoStore® independently handles complete picking orders with individual items. With a lead-time of 30 minutes, AutoStore® achieves maximum efficiency in order processing with its integrated optimization algorithms. Communication between the warehouse management/ERP system and AutoStore® takes place via XML interface.

The AutoStore® small parts warehouse in Bedburg is expected to go live in the 2nd quarter of 2020.