Automated pallet warehouse: proven for medium to heavy loads

An automated pallet warehouse is a storage facility for goods on pallets up to a total weight of 3,500 kilograms each. It offers a large storage area with a comparatively small footprint.

Automated pallet warehousing includes the following components: 

• A racking system for single- to multiple-deep storage (single- or multiple-storage) of various pallet types: Industrial, EURO, CHEP, block, stringer, AS.
• One or more rack aisles, each with an automatic stacker crane (ASRS) or with pallet shuttles.
• Infeed and outfeed conveyors on the perimeter.
• Various workstations for incoming goods, outgoing goods and order picking.
• Software for controlling all material flows in the automated pallet warehouse (warehouse management system, WMS).

An automated pallet warehouse is a robust, secure, flexible, and dynamic storage solution with some particular advantages:

• can be used universally and across industry sectors including retail, food & beverage, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, automotive, etc.
• suitable for standard, refrigerated and deep-freeze warehouses
• optimal space utilization
• fast access times
• high throughput rates
• continuous and safe workflow
• modular and scalable
• reliable and low maintenance
• fully automatic handling with minimum error rate
• resource-efficient thanks to material flow optimization control as well as energy-saving design and function

An automated pallet warehouse is a software-controlled system that replaces manual storage and retrieval processes with automated ones. Picking takes place according to the goods-to-person principle. The automated pallet warehouse transports the required items to workstations.

The core components of an automated pallet warehouse and the driver of its high performance are automatic storage devices. These are either storage and retrieval machines (SRM) or shuttles. A stacker crane travels horizontally on a rail through an aisle, stops at the required position and, with the help of a vertically operating lift truck, removes or stores load carriers from different rack levels. Shuttles are autonomous storage vehicles that move independently on the cross beams of a storage rack. Shuttles can operate alone, with several vehicles on one storage level each or on several storage levels. As a result, shuttle systems are even more scalable than ASRS technology and can achieve even higher throughputs.

• Construction: free-standing steel structure inside a warehouse or silo construction as a load-bearing structure for the roof and walls
• Rack/aisle height: up to 45 m
• Storage density: single- and multiple-deep
• Temperature range: from -30 °C to +45 °C
• Payload of stacker crane: from 200 kg to 3,500 kg
• Throughput of stacker crane: from 20 to 45 double cycles/hour
• Shuttle payload (load weight per transport unit): up to 1,500 kg for standard applications
• Shuttle system throughput: up to 200 pallets/h per module