Press releases

Lufthansa Cargo is investing in the modernization of its logistics center at Frankfurt Airport with an infrastructure program. Vollert has equipped the high-bay warehouse of the Road Feeder Service (RFS) with two new 28-meter-high stacker cranes for the rapid storage and retrieval of air freight from the tarmac to the road. Two completely redesigned Moving Truck Docks (MTD) handle the rapid loading of trucks.

Finnish manufacturer Valtra relies on a clever intralogistics solution for coating tractors. It not only allows chassis weighing up to eight tons to be coated overhead, but also to be buffered in a closed circuit and guided around corners. Two chain pushers in combination with friction wheel drives are used for this purpose. The lean solution guarantees continuous production in automotive eight-minute cycles.

In future, Gränges in Finspång, Sweden, will use a new flat storage facility with an automatic crane from Vollert to organize the entire supply and removal of the new aluminium production area. The warehouse serves as the central interface between the cold rolling mill, the slitter lines and the packaging. Vollert is developing the complete intralogistics system, including coil cooling, inductive transfer cars, an automated guided vehicle (AGV) as well as the control and warehouse management system, and integrating it into an existing hall.

For the second time in three years, Vollert's intralogistics specialists have received an order from TBEA to build a fully automated storage and material flow system for steel coils, including a high-bay warehouse. The twin plant for the production of transformer cores in Tianjin, China, is being built in the immediate vicinity of the first production plant. Handling the sensitive steel coils requires sensitive heavy-duty technology and sophisticated storage logic with high structural requirements.

The heavy-duty specialist Vollert from Weinsberg, Germany, is supporting the agricultural machinery manufacturer JACTO in Brazil with the construction of a new combined powder and wet paint coating system. Large parts up to 10 m long, 2.5 m high and weighing 4 tons are coated, including for large coffee and sugar cane harvesters as well as planting and fertilizing machines. To speed up the time-consuming dip coating process, product carriers can be combined for smaller workpieces and separated again for larger workpieces.

Vollert Anlagenbau, intralogistics specialist for the global aluminum industry, is developing a comprehensive intralogistics system with a high-bay warehouse and various transport systems for supply and removal in the warm and cold rolling areas for Logan Aluminum. The high-bay warehouse serves as the interface between the rolling mills at the site in Russellville, Kentucky, USA. At a height of 42 m and a payload of up to 30 tons, it contains the largest stacker cranes ever built by Vollert.

Two automated Vollert loading cranes ensure quick unloading of vehicle batteries for e-car production from trains at ŠKODA’s headquarters in Czech Mladá Boleslav. Automation reduces lading times while increasing safety in handling of sensitive batteries.

Vollert developed a particularly space-efficient paint shop on two levels for machine and plant constructor KraussMaffei. The workpieces are moving on a crane track at a height of twelve metres. The walk-on painting and working area for the workers is located six metres high on the first floor, and the space underneath can be fully used – protected by a rock-solid fall protection for large parts with weights of up to 30 tons.

SWISS KRONO is accelerating picking for innovative countertops and melamine-coated wood panels for furniture production and interior fittings with a heavy-duty high-bay warehouse by Vollert. All wood formats required for picking will be provided in only two minutes.

Vollert designed a fully automated intralogistics system for the flexible packaging specialist Aluflexpack (AFP) in their production plant in Drniš near Split in Croatia. In addition to a high-bay warehouse with a special treatment zone, the material flow concept for several hundred coils includes the complete automated transport of the very heavy aluminum coils of different lengths and diameters.

For a new transformer core production plant in northern China, intralogistics specialist Vollert is developing and supplying a complete, fully automated high-bay warehouse with 1,500 cantilever arms for coils weighing up to 5 tons. Despite the load weighing tons, the entire intralogistics system must handle the sensitive foil material extremely gently.

At the Liebherr plant in Ehingen, Vollert planned and built a new ballast painting plant with friction wheel and rope conveyor technology for the coating of crane ballast elements. These are used as counterweights for mobile lattice boom and telescopic cranes with lifting heights of up to 245 m. Depending on the product carrier, elements weighing up to 20 tons can be coated in an overhead, suspended manner. A total of 25 product carriers are in circulation.

A new stacker crane for 11-ton aluminum coils and a modern automatic crane system for extruded profiles have been speeding up the production processes of Hydro Aluminium Rolled Products and Neuman Aluminium since the beginning of the year. For the replacement of the central conveyor systems, two Vollert teams took advantage of the short production-free period over Christmas. With foresighted planning, they mastered the complex tasks even in the tightest of spaces and under tightened pandemic conditions.

At its headquarters in Hagen-Hohenlimburg, the BILSTEIN GROUP invested in a wide quarto reversing rolling mill and a new slitting line with a fully automated buffer store for steel coils with a width of up to 1,350 mm and a weight of up to 31 tonnes. For direct access, these are stored hanging from cantilevers. A fully automatic stacker crane from Vollert ensures smooth storage and retrieval.

In a comprehensive retrofit project, the intralogistics specialists from Vollert modernized the complete conveyor technology of an existing large parts painting plant for the injection moulding machine manufacturer Arburg. While retaining the existing crane runway and painting technology, the processes were accelerated, the painting processes improved and automated and extended parts of the plant technology were added.

Vollert erects a new material flow system with high-bay warehouse. It is already the fourth warehouse of the intralogistics specialist at the Mercedes-Benz press shop in Bremen. At the same time, Vollert increased the overall speed of the existing intralogistics processes.

Hammerer Aluminium Industries (HAI) is investing in a high-end production line at its Austrian site in Ranshofen. The aim is to produce aluminium profiles of the highest quality for the future topic of e-mobility. With an automatic crane and a fully automated buffer store, the SPS Group and Vollert ensure damage-free material flow between the existing and extended production lines. From planning to commissioning, the intralogistics specialists needed only 12 months.

Truck trailers are useful, but also big and heavy. This does not make their transport in the paint shop easy. Giga Coating GmbH recently built a completely new surface treatment plant in Twist. Here, up to 15.7 m long and 9 t heavy large parts are not only coated, but also blasted, dipped, swiveled and heat treated in hanging furnaces. The automated circulation principle creates capacities for up to 100 trailers and special parts per day in two construction stages.

For its new factory, Benninghoven, specialists in the construction of asphalt mixing plants up to 50 m in height and a member of the Wirtgen Group, is investing in a new double-track suspension system from Vollert for the overhead surface treatment of large parts. The special drive concept allows the overhead and flexible transport of up to 22 ton heavy parts, while at the same time enabling the energy-efficient separation of transport and furnace steel structures. Besides Benninghoven, in the company group Wirtgen and Kleemann are already using the proven Vollert technology.

The Brazilian manufacturer Randon has built a 500m long combined welding, painting and assembly line for trailers and railway wagons in the state of São Paolo. Vollert has developed a heavy-duty material flow concept consisting of 13 combined rope conveyor drives, two moving distribution transfer platforms and the control system for the individually timed forward feed.

Vollert erected for Saarstahl AG a new fully automatic high-bay warehouse for up to 665 steel wire coils at the Neunkirchen plant. In addition to the high cycle time of just 190 seconds per double cycle, the heavy-duty engineers also realized the handling of bundles weighing up to 4.5 tons directly from the stacker crane to the lift truck and on to the truck loading.

Neuman Aluminum modernized their material flows in the extrusion plant in Marktl, Austria, during the Christmas holidays. At the core is a new automatic crane system by Vollert with 21 interchangeable cycles for loads of up to 3 tons. It replaces two existing transport cranes and is one of the fastest automatic cranes ever used in the extrusion industry.

For LEWA as a special pump manufacturer and HAMM as a manufacturer of rollers for road construction and earthworks, Vollert developed and installed new floor-guided and overhead material flow systems for surface coating of parts weighing up to 12 tons. While high cycle times are crucial at HAMM, at LEWA for the first-time workpieces weighing tons travel 90° around the corner and thus enable an extremely compact system layout.

TRIMET Aluminium SE uses a new and so far unique in the world technique for the cooling of green anodes in its Hamburg factory: The pilot plant reduces the resource usage and dispenses with active cooling by water. Instead TRIMET relies on cooling by natural convection with outside air – and this with success.

At ALUMINIUM 2016 (hall 13, stand 13I05), Vollert is presenting innovative material handling and storage systems for smelting works, rolling and extrusion plants. The first system developed with TRIMET Aluminium SE in Hamburg for cooling green anodes using natural ventilation is unique in the world. At Hydro Rolled Products GmbH in Grevenbroich, an end-to-end fully automated intralogistics system supports rapid and damage-free production of high-quality aluminium sheets.

Low-loader manufacturer Faymonville dispatches components weighing up to 12 tons through its overhead painting plant in Luxembourg. The material flow concept also comes from a heavy load expert – from Vollert based in Weinsberg. The control system supports automatic operation as well as the manual transportation of parts. Friction wheels facilitate the space-saving plant layout.

From the 8th to the 10th of March, the intralogistics specialist Vollert will be presenting impressive material flow and storage systems for heavy and very heavy loads, at the LogiMAT 2016 in Stuttgart (Hall 5, Booth 5A40). In doing so, the focus will be on special crane systems, for the metal and aluminium industry for example. Whether hot, sensitive, uneven or several tons in weight - current project examples for AMAG Austria Metall AG and the Chinese Zhongwang group will be used to…

Whether hot, sensitive, uneven or weighing several tonnes - the automatic cranes in the new mega-rolling plants of the Zhongwang Group in Tianjin now move slabs and coils securely and around four times as fast as conventional systems. The technology, control and stores management for this has all come from the intralogistics experts Vollert in the south of Germany.

Aleris International, Inc. plans to boost production capacity in Duffel, Belgium with a new Sexto mill. To ensure smooth operation, Vollert Anlagenbau from Weinsberg will provide a fully-automated intralogistics system with high-bay warehouse. Up to 32 coils with a maximum unit weight of 25 tons are moved in and out of the warehouse each hour.

In the new Siemens AG Austria coating center, metros and passenger carriages are automatically transported via a central transport system to the individual coating treatment booths. The transfer table allows for flexible arrangement of individual processing stations and offers the highest level of safety for crossing passenger traffic.

Anything but small, the exchangeable pavement cassettes used in the world's first fully climatized indoor tire testing facility from Continental weigh more than 100 tons and measure 75 meters in length. The facility allows the tire manufacturer to conduct 100,000 dry and wet brake tests per year using up to five different sections of test pavement. Vollert developed the system that quickly changes the cassettes.

Hydro Aluminium Rolled Products GmbH has commissioned Vollert Anlagenbau to modernise its existing plant in Grevenbroich by designing an end-to-end intralogistics system that automatically loads and unloads lorries, stores up to 4,000 tons of aluminium coil, and uses trolleys with inductive power transfer.

Battery-powered, emissions-free transporters that operate without a driver are being used for the first time at HHLA Container Terminal Altenwerder (CTA). To quickly and frequently exchange the batteries in the onboard battery boxes, which can weigh up to 12 tons, Vollert Anlagenbau developed a fully automated handling station in close collaboration with Gottwald Port Technology GmbH.

heroal's new high-bay warehouse has the capacity for 10,000 long items and 7,000 euro pallets. A centrally controlled intralogistics system from Vollert ensures a smooth material flow between infeed and outfeed.

The Tikhvin Railway Car Building Plant (TVSZ) is currently building a state-of-the-art plant for assembling open- and closed-top freight carriages in the Russian town of Tikhvin. To this end, Vollert Anlagenbau from Weinsberg was commissioned to manufacture four transfer cars with payloads of between 70 and 100 tons. A heated enclosure installed on top of the cars provides optimal protection against the elements.

A 260-ton automatic crane is the latest highlight in Vollert's intralogistics programme for heavy-duty applications. Capable of travelling up to 2.7 m/s and featuring a 44-m span width, the crane has a 35-ton payload and will be used to transport heavy objects on site at the customer's steel tube plant in Düsseldorf-Rath. The world's market leader manufacturers steel tubes for applications in oil and gas fields, power plants, and the chemical and petrochemical industry.

The SEW-EURODRIVE drive automation system by Bruchsal relies on a simple, flexible material flow system by Vollert Anlagenbau for coating large gearbox units weighing up to 3.5 tons. It combines the advantages of Power&Free systems and requires significantly fewer system components. Nevertheless, comparably high cycle times are possible.

Liebherr breaks new ground with a new large-scale paint shop for hydraulic excavators: The components, weighing up to twenty tons, are conveyed through the system on a guided track while freely suspended. A special drive solution ensures optimal protection against explosion in the painting and drying booths.

F. X. Meiller Fahrzeug- & Maschinenfabrik commissioned its new facilities for coating large items in early July. Two 70 m-long painting tunnels installed in parallel offer space for 14 stations and can each take up to 12 items weighing 8 tons apiece. Two chain conveyor systems from Vollert provide the required pulling force.

At Wirtgen GmbH in Windhagen, world market leaders in the field of cold milling for road construction, components weighing up to 30 tons are freely suspended. The steel construction of the 230 °C furnaces is completely separated from the transport steel construction to protect against energy losses. This is made possible by special drive technology. Even with the heaviest loads, it allows for gap bridging of 70 cm. In addition, it is wear and explosion proof. The system was designed by Vollert Anlagenbau in Weinsberg.

South Korean bottler Login Beverage commissioned Vollert Anlagenbau to deliver a semi-automatic loading station for trucks. The special-purpose loader can move up to 180 pallets carrying 10,000 beverage crates per hour and does the work of three forklift trucks. Twenty different types of truck are serviced.

Schletter GmbH, the largest supplier of solar mounting systems in Europe, has commissioned Vollert Anlagenbau to design a custom manipulator with three hoisters that can work together or separately to lift profiles weighing up to 9 tons with a maximum length of 18 metres. The manipulator will be used in a new buffer warehouse and is extremely compact to ensure optimal utilisation of vertical space.

With a new painting plant, Liebherr is setting the standard in commercial vehicle construction. At the plant in Ehingen, parts from mobile and crawler cranes weighing up to 50 tons will be painted while suspended in mid-air. Vollert Anlagenbau from Weinsberg is developing the intralogistics for this. Wirtgen and SEW-EURODRIVE are just two of the companies also backing the new technology.

The steel manufacturer SSAB in Oxelösund produces steel plates in one minute tact cycle. The information which plate comes next for what customer is only available three minutes prior to the production exit, thus the intralogistics system must react with appropriate speed. The solution supplied by the Vollert plant engineering company from Weinsberg, is achieved by conversion from a surface warehouse to a high-bay warehouse system with two MEGA AS/RS that enable short cycle times despite loads of tonnages.

Vollert Anlagenbau GmbH from Weinsberg, Germany, is developing an entire intralogistic system with a fully automated high-bay warehouse for Asia’s leading aluminium foil manufacturer. The contract from China, with a total volume of approximately thirteen million Euro, is no easy task: The warehouse, which has a capacity of around 14,000 tons, is located in one of the most dangerous earthquake regions in the world and must withstand seismic shocks which measure up to 5 and 6 on the Richter scale. With the new production plant, Xiashun is in a position to manufacture litho material of the highest quality.

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.

When others are running out of steam, the engineers at Vollert Anlagenbau are just getting into their stride, specialising in intralogistics systems for heavy goods – especially for the metalworking industry. For the aluminium extrusion works of apt Hiller for example, Vollert developed a fully automated intralogistics system which facilitates an end-to-end material flow from the extrusion works to the processing department and then on to the downstream anodising plant and newly constructed shipping warehouse. Major parts of the new system were installed and existing systems modernised and integrated while production was ongoing. As well as a higher handling capacity, the virtual warehouse of the transport control system allows optimum utilisation of the space offered by in-process stores, even with different sizes of transport basket.