Würth Industrie Service's high-bay warehouse takes shape
46 meters long, weighing 22.5 tons: The first storage and retrieval machines for Würth Industrie Service's new high-bay warehouse have been successfully installed.
Würth Industrie Service
20-Oct-2023
Our writers
Reading time
5 Minutes
46 meters long, weighing 22.5 tons, maneuvered 100 meters over the roofs: True millimeter work with colossi weighing tons on the heights of the Drillberg. Earthworks for the construction of a new, automated high-bay warehouse with a further 59,000 storage locations on an area of over 4,000 square meters began back in July 2022. Last Monday, October 16, 2023, the first storage and retrieval machines were installed, which will take over the automated storage and retrieval of pallets in the warehouse from now on. Würth Industrie Service GmbH & Co. KG has its sights firmly set on commissioning in April 2024.
Würth Industrial Park is considered as one of the most advanced logistics centres for industrial supply in the entire Europe. With over 65,000 square metres, which
is equivalent to about 9 football fields, it is the pulsating linchpin of the company. From here, around 20,000 customers are securely supplied with production resources as well as auxiliary and operating materials. Modern, fully automated high-bay and shuttle warehouses with a capacity of more than 650,000 storage locations, a 34-kilometre-long conveyor system, autonomous bin shuttles, camera inspection systems and self-learning robots are used – all with the goal of ensuring optimised workplace ergonomics, a sustainably healthy way of working by taking over physically stressful tasks and an increased level of automation and digitalisation. In order to ensure the long-term supply security for all customers across Europe and to meet the demands of an increasingly growing product range of currently 1.4 million items, Würth Industrie Service is consistently investing in further expanding its warehouse capacity. With the new high-bay warehouse –50 metres high, 34 metres wide, 121 metres long - the provider of C-Parts management is once again expanding its capacities by 59,000 additional pallet storage spaces. This increases the high-bay capacity at the Bad Mergentheim location by about 33 percent to a total of 235,000 pallet storage spaces. Now that the silo-type shelving system has been completed, three of six storage and retrieval machines (SRM for short) have been brought in. Over an aisle length of 120 metres, the rail-guided vehicles will now take over the fully automated storage and retrieval of pallets with small parts in the warehouse. They will operate in six aisles with a maximum travel speed of 180 m/min and a lifting speed of up to 70 m/min. Each SRM has two telescopic forks as load handling attachments with a total load capacity of approximately 2,400 kg. The efficient 46 metre high storage and retrieval machines are particularly economical on space thanks to their single column design, and can carry out up to 600 pallet movements per hour with their two load handling attachments.
Insights: Voices from the company
"With the new high-bay warehouse, we are realising dimensions that rarely exist in this overall complexity. The logistical expansion will thus significantly increase the efficiency and capacity in the entire value-added process.”
Helmut Eisenkolb, Head of Logistics at Würth Industrie Service.
In Kardex, Würth Industrie Service has found a partner who, as a global industry partner for intralogistics solutions and a leading provider of automated storage solutions and material flow systems, is a true expert in its field. In order to transport the storage and retrieval machines safely from the kardex production site in Neuenstadt am Kocher to Bad Mergentheim by heavy-duty transport, a total of three 55-meter-long trucks transported the systems to the Drillberg. The crane operators steered the 22.5-tonne devices over the still open roof into the high-bay warehouse with the utmost precision. At a height of 100 meters, this was real millimeter work for all those responsible.
Impulses from our partners
"In a project of this size, it is always impressive to see how so many experts with a wide range of specialist knowledge can act as a large unit in a very short space of time."
Lars Wagner, Project Manager, Operations New Business Refurbishment at MLOG Logistics GmbH
Focus on sustainability
With the currently implemented and planned construction measures, Würth Industrie Service is not only setting an important course for customer supply in the future, but is also contributing to consciously acting sustainably. How does this work in the case of the storage and retrieval machines? The energy requirements of the storage and retrieval machines are optimized by means of DC link coupling, which can redirect the energy between two drives. This means that the energy saved by the lifting drive during lowering can in turn be used for the travel drive. In addition, kardex storage and retrieval machines are impressive in terms of robustness, durability, maintenance and, above all, quality. The greenhouse gas-neutral energy supply makes a further contribution to sustainability. For this reason, the south façade of the new high-bay warehouse will be equipped with a large-scale photovoltaic system with a total output of 1,028 kWp. The aim is to achieve a total output of almost 2,000 kWp and a generation volume of around 1,500,000 kWh in the Würth Industrial Park. Always being one step ahead and acting sustainably and with foresight - that is what the company stands for.
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