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A dream car every minute

Two stacker cranes in a high-bay racking warehouse supplied by Vollert Anlagenbau of Weinsberg ensure a fresh supply of new cars every day at the new BMW Welt in Munich. The short-stay warehouse provides 284 storage positions on four levels and is located 12 metres deep down in the belly of the huge delivery hall. From here, the cars are moved fully automatically to the so-called Premiere Arena – the centrepiece of BMW Welt – for presentation and collection.

The new high-bay warehouse for the dream cars is 112 metres long, 18 metres wide and 12 metres deep. Besides the two fully automated stacker cranes, Vollert's engineers supplied four storage and retrieval boxes with contour control, the aisle equipment and the control and warehouse management software which is linked directly to BMW's own internal BWMS network. For Vollert, this represented a contract worth several million Euro.

The warehouse provides temporary storage for the BMW cars that arrive on trucks at half-hourly intervals throughout the day. BMW personnel first place the freshly washed and polished cars in a transfer box onto a pallet provided by the system. Scanners then read the position and size, and assign a suitable destination storage slot. When the driver has left the vehicle, one of the two centrally controlled stacker cranes picks up the loaded pallet and conveys it to its allotted slot. The stacker crane can then be instructed to retrieve a desired vehicle and place it - again in a transfer box - in a glass elevator that will take it up to the Premiere Arena above. On the stacker cranes, cars can be rotated to allow storage and retrieval in the direction of travel. Having reached the Premiere Arena, they are presented to customers prior to collection on 20 turntables also supplied by Vollert.

Henry Schulze, Vollert's Project Manager, explains that the system combines a number of special features. The two stacker cranes can move independently of one another along the narrow warehouse aisle and although they can also meet, a safety controller ensures that the stacker baskets are kept at different heights and that the vehicles are correctly aligned. "The warehouse is also equipped with a space-saving two-level pallet changing system. Each time a vehicle is retrieved, an empty pallet is inserted beneath the vehicle storage position. This cuts down the cycle times, allowing cars to be stored and retrieved every 1.5 minutes," according to Herr Schulze.

"The new vehicles are already partially fuelled so the warehouse is equipped with a special fire protection system," explains Hans-Jörg Vollert, the firm's Managing Director. The entire area is oxygen-reduced and access for personnel is restricted, which is one reason for the fully automated solution. Smoke and fire doors provide additional protection and ensure a controlled supply of air." Customers from all over the world will take personal delivery of around 45,000 vehicles a year in the collection hall. 170 new cars are collected on site in Munich each day. From a glass-fronted viewing gallery, visitors to BMW Welt can watch as the two Vollert stacker cranes move eerily around the short-stay warehouse, guided as if by an unseen hand.

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