Products a plenty at the CeMATsupermärkte
May 1st 2011 Visiting CeMAT is well worthwhile but it’s a bit like visiting a shopping centre or a supermarket - you go there with one thing in mind and see a whole bunch of other stuff that catches your eye as well.
We saw a number of products that look promising in meeting your needs both now and in the future. Let’s look first at a product you will be able to buy this year.
Jungheinrich’s lithium-ion powered pallet truck is the kind of product that is typically in prototype but the German giant deserves credit for promptly bringing a lithium-ion truck to market.
There is more on this product on page 18 but in a nutshell it has allowed Jungheinrich to decrease the footprint of powered pallet truck operations, both in the truck itself and battery charging facilities, and eliminate the need for a second battery. It will also allow for three shift operation, providing short breaks are utilised to recharge the truck.
Looking further into the future, Still unveiled a concept lift truck for 2020. This modular truck concept, aptly titled the cubeXX, has a sleek, streamlined and very compact design. This ‘Swiss Amry Knife’ style truck could be as a tugger, to carry double stacked pallets, and also as an order picker. The truck would be able to utilise different counterbalance weights when tackling different loads to decrease wear and tear on the product. To save space, it is envisaged the truck will retract its cabin when on stand by and also fold away the forks so they are flush with the mast.
CeMAT was also notable for a proliferation in automated and semi-automated products, which are increasingly encroaching into the territory of the traditional lift truck. Pressures on warehouse and logistics managers to reduce head count and increase pick speed are clearly pushing manufacturers to innovate.
The more established automation manufacturers and integrators also made notable launches at the show. SSI Schaefer launched the Auto Cruiser Conveyor, a fulfilment and order picking concept and the Order Verifier for automatic checking of order-picking jobs.
Showing how prevalent automation increasingly is, the Auto Cruiser Conveyor is a transport system that aims to close the gap between fork-lift transport and conveyor technology for internal deliveries.
All-in-all it was an interesting show and we will bring you the very best of the products on display in this and upcoming issues of Handling & Storage Solutions.
Simon Duddy, Editor More articles from Handling & Storage Solutions: | 
