This document summarizes DAMBACH Lagersysteme's presentation on automated pallet handling equipment for freezer warehouses. It discusses how their stacker cranes and VNA trucks can reduce a warehouse's energy usage, labor costs, and overall costs compared to conventional equipment like reach trucks. Key benefits highlighted include reducing the building envelope to lower energy consumption, eliminating lighting needs, minimizing labor requirements, and providing flexible and cost-effective automation options that integrate with existing warehouse management systems and are designed for easy maintenance.
2. Equipment manufacturer and supplier to logistics industry since 1974. Complete range of pallet / case handling equipment for the freezer industry. Modern factory designed to the latest standards. In-house design and manufacturing for mechanics, controls, and software. Over 3,000 stacker cranes and 6,000 VNA trucks in operation worldwide. Fully automatic and semi-automatic equipment choices. Software interfaces for virtually all Warehouse Management Systems. Custom and standardized equipment built for your application!
3. Freezer warehouse automation for the 3PL industry. Available technologies varying heights and density. Energy consumption the total cycle. Operations labor, scalability, flexibility. Capital Costs automation expensive IT use what youve got or upgrade (your choice). Maintenance we can do it, you can do it.
4. Aisle Changing Cranes Aisle Bound Cranes Man-up VNA Trucks DAMBACH technology overview. Up to 145ft, fully automatic Up to 60ft, semi-automatic
5. Telescopic fork. Swivel fork. Load handlers. A few of the options. All load handler types can be applied to stacker cranes and VNA trucks. Deep lane. With stacker cranes it is possible to carry multiple loads simultaneously.
7. Energy consumption. The total cycle. Refrigeration load: 43% is transmission losses through building envelope 9% is infiltration at dock / freezer openings 15% lights in freezer 9% activity (equipment, people, etc.) 24% internally generated loads Goals: Reduce size of building envelope (transmission losses), reduce infiltration at dock / freezer, eliminate lighting, reduce impact of activity. No unnecessary energy. For every 1 kWh energy into the building, it takes 0,4 kWh to remove with refrigeration.
8. Building envelope reduction. Counter balance truck 26 139% Reach truck (benchmark) 42 100% Swing reach 48 79% Hi-lift VNA (manual or semi-auto) 60 68% Stacker crane (double deep, automatic) 130 61% Stacker crane (deep lane, automatic) 130 59% Height Building Envelope Building envelope based on 20,000 pallet locations.
9. Building envelope. Reduce transmission losses. Transmission losses through walls / roof account for 43% of refrigeration load. High Lift VNA has 32% less surface area than reach truck. Stacker Crane has 40% less surface area than reach truck. Reduced surface area reduces transmission losses and lowers building costs. Building cost savings can be applied toward thicker panels (e.g. 8 wall panels). Total refrigeration load reduction ~25%.
10. Lights and infiltration. Energy savings. In a conventional freezer warehouse, lights account for ~15% of refrigeration load. No lights are needed in an automatic warehouse. Temporary and spot lighting activated as needed. In a conventional freezer warehouse, infiltration between freezer and dock accounts for ~9% of refrigeration load. Smaller and faster openings minimize energy losses. Vestibules, airlocks, (small) high-speed doors are all possible.
11. Equipment. Energy efficiency of battery operated fork truck systems. Total system efficiency from source power 480VAC at the charger to the work done point is about 29%. Add all losses from chargers, batteries, controllers, hydraulics, and drive-train. This means you need 3.44 x the energy input to output the given work. Only the charger loss is outside conditioned space. Source: Battery One Book by Curtis Instruments.
12. Equipment. Energy efficiency of conductor-bar powered stacker cranes. Cranes are powered via 480VAC electricity fed via conductor bar. Between mechanical losses due to friction and heat generated by the motors, the total efficiency (before energy regeneration) is about 76%. However, we recover between 25% and 40% of energy with energy regeneration, bringing total efficiency to 90%+. Acceleration Assisted Braking / Losses Regenerative Braking
13. Energy. Summary of savings. Refrigeration load: Reduced envelope 損 reduced transmission losses = 25% load reduction No lights 損 no heat = 15% load reduction Reduced infiltration = 5% load reduction Total 45% refrigeration load reduction Saved electrical costs for lighting: No lights 損 no power 損 $.21/ft 2 / year ($35,000 for 150,000 ft 2 ) No lights 損 no heat 損 another ~$14,000 / year savings on refrigeration
14. Energy cost per pallet in and out. Lights and equipment. Counter balance truck 26 $0.48 Reach truck 42 $0.33 Swing reach 48 $0.26 Hi-lift VNA (manual or semi-auto) 60 $0.18 Stacker crane (double deep, automatic) no lights 130 $0.03 Stacker crane (deep lane, automatic) no lights 130 $0.03 Height Energy Cost / Pallet Lighting & equipment x refrigeration loads x $0.10 kWh. 20,000 pallets. 45 day turn. 16 hour day. Freezer only. No dock.
15. Equipment load and additional energy savings. In a conventional freezer warehouse, fork-truck activity accounts for ~10% of refrigeration load. Automatic systems with stacker cranes almost eliminate activity based refrigeration load. Because of reduced heat generated by equipment, no lights, and decreased infiltration, it is possible to minimize daytime refrigeration and run cooling equipment primarily at night with reduced electricity rates. Off-peak power utilization can reduce energy costs an additional ~18%.
16. Operations. Labor reduction in freezer. Labor: Hi-Lift VNA cuts freezer staff by 遜 compared to conventional. Fully automated solutions eliminate freezer staff entirely. Labor savings of $700,000+ per year is possible for the typical freezer. Depending on solution design, dock staff is unaffected or slight reduction. Increased employee visibility and monitoring. People stay on the dock. Employee retention easier. Comfortable working conditions. Reduced labor cost per pallet in and out. Labor savings based on 20,000 pallets. 45 day turn. 16 hour day. Freezer labor only. No dock.
18. Operations. Flexibility. Conventional / Hi-Lift VNA trucks Add people Add equipment Automatic stacker crane Design flexibility into the solution. Upgrade equipment capacity (speeds, number of load handlers, add cranes). Change software functionality. Pre-stage, pre-sort, ABC classification, etc.
19. Capital costs. Look at the whole picture. Capital costs: Reduced cost of refrigeration equipment (less tonnage). Smaller building shell. Lower operating costs (people & energy) Increased up-front equipment costs for stacker cranes, but: Stacker cranes require less maintenance No battery replacement Longer equipment life (10+ years controls, 30+ years structure) Increased cost of stacker cranes offset by reduced fork-truck costs.
21. IT. Ours or yours. Warehouse Management Systems: Automated equipment can interface with your existing WMS. No need to change your existing WMS. Customer interface is transparent. Operations interface to automated equipment can be integrated into your existing WMS and can be a stand-alone system. Inventory / customer data always resides on your WMS. Software interfaces are highly reliable and low cost.
22. Maintenance. Ours or yours. Maintenance: An automated crane requires 24 man-hours of maintenance per year. Very few wear parts, on 2 - 5 year intervals depending machine usage. Service can be by local supplier or by the factory. 24x7 hotline support always available. Weve built a few thousand machines yours isnt the 1 st and wont be the last! Its not rocket science!
23. Summary. Why go high? Why automate? Summary: Reduce the envelope to reduce energy. Dont add heat into the freezer no lights, smart equipment. Decrease infiltration. Minimize labor. Keep your labor on the dock. Look at the entire cost structure. Design for flexibility. IT your way. Maintenance friendly.
24. Thank you! John Ripple General Manager North America DAMBACH Lagersysteme Phone: 616.334.9969 Email: ripple@dambach-usa.com