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New partnership for optimally automated intralogistics processes: With six automated guided vehicles (AGVs) from the modular VARIO MOVE series, the Hamburg-based company ek robotics is implementing a new intralogistics solution for one of the leading premium breweries.

The headquarters of the long-established company produces a wide range of products for the national retail and catering sectors. Thanks to the company's willingness to innovate, the intralogistics processes in empties sorting will in future be managed by an automated guided vehicle system from the manufacturer and integrator ek robotics. The new automation process revolutionizes the previously manual forklift transport of unsorted and sorted empties. The Hamburg-based company's transport solution comprises six high-performance transport robots from the modular VARIO MOVE series. Equipped with a combination of two load handling attachments per vehicle, these take over the transportation between numerous conveyor systems, robot cells and other transfer stations in 24-hour operation. They also serve two block storage areas, store and retrieve pallet stacks and transport new glass to the transfer stations of the conveyor systems. The new partnership between ek robotics and the large brewery was established via KAUP, a German manufacturer of attachments for forklift trucks.

"A special feature of the vehicles is the interaction between the device clamp and the height-adjustable pair of forks, which enable separate distribution of empties and pallets," explains Guido Wendel, the responsible sales engineer at ek robotics. Before a transport robot reaches one of the nine transfer stations of the robot cell, the empties are fixed in place with the clamp, the pallet underneath is lowered with the fork and thus separated from the empties crates. In the next step, the empties are placed on the conveyor system without the pallet and the empty pallet is then transferred to another station. After the empties system has sorted the products, the automated guided vehicles pick up the empties again, place the crates back on an empty pallet and close the cycle by transferring their load to the filling system. Together with KAUP, ek robotics has been implementing a wide range of automation projects for special requirements for many years.

In the beverage industry, driverless transport vehicles from ek robotics transport over a billion liters of beverages efficiently and safely every year. The AGV specialist develops customized driverless transport systems for almost every industry, which are precisely tailored to the customer's requirements and environmental conditions. In addition to the German brewery families, other companies in this sector such as Arla Foods, Gerolsteiner and the Royal Swinkels Brewery (Bavaria) have been relying on automation solutions from ek robotics for many years.