Borgholzhausen/Herford, April 2024 – The Dresselhaus Group has been trading in C-parts for 70 years and specializes in the distribution of fastening technology, fasteners, special and drawing parts as well as articles for production and maintenance. With its brand promise "The Value Adders", the company offers innovative logistics services and customized Kanban solutions for international customers. In 2022, the Dresselhaus Group generated gross sales of 230 million euros.
In order to continue its growth and increase its performance, the company decided to make its warehouse logistics fit for the future. Joseph Dresselhaus won the "Best of Industry Award 2023" in the warehouse technology category with the comprehensive project "Dresselhaus 2.0 - Conversion of warehouse logistics".
High performance in a small space
The logistics center in Herford has been rebuilt and automated since 2022. In addition to the structural limitations of the logistics center, which was built in 1992, the challenges of the award-winning logistics project were the cooperation between the different trades. “It was the different handovers between the mechanical and software systems that made this project so exciting,” says Udo Grumbach, Head of Strategic Logistics & Logistics Herford and member of the management team. The central elements of the highly complex system consist of a combination of a forklift-guided high-bay warehouse, 55 Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs), two articulated robot stations, a container shuttle warehouse and a double vertical conveyor system.
“We have completely reorganized the storage and picking of pallets and small parts at the existing site in Herford,” says Udo Grumbach, describing the comprehensive modernization. “In addition to the new AGV system from SAFELOG and a shuttle warehouse for small parts from Rocket Solution, we were also impressed by the solution from Westfalia Technologies. Two vertical conveyors from our modernization partner Westfalia are responsible for connecting the reorganized, four-storey warehouse and picking building, vertically supplying the storey levels and providing pallets for the picking stations on the first floor by transferring them to AGVs,” says Grumbach.
State-of-the-art flow of goods and increased efficiency
After goods receipt, the latest generation of narrow-aisle forklift trucks transport the pallets to the 17-aisle high-bay warehouse. Once the pallets have been prepared, they are transported by a total of 55 AGVs (for pallets and small load carriers) to the pallet buffer warehouse (4 levels) or to the articulated robot station. Once the small load carriers have been separated, they are transported to the container shuttle warehouse by AGV and stored there four-deep. Up to 200 containers per hour can be picked up in the articulated robot station.
In order to distribute the goods over the four levels, Westfalia Technologies designed a double vertical conveyor system for Dresselhaus with a racking system at the rear for a total of 18 Euro pallets. Two transfer boxes for the AGVs with corresponding personnel protection light barriers were installed on each of the four levels. This interface to the AGV system is one of the special features of this innovative automation project, with which the intralogistics specialist from Borgholzhausen delivers a solution tailored precisely to Dresselhaus.
Two vertical conveyors for vertical warehouse reorganization
“Our solution consists of two approx. 13.7-metre-high vertical conveyors (VC) including PLC control and a rear storage rack with 9 individual spaces per VC on 9 levels, which serves as an intermediate buffer. These VCs pick up pallets from the AGV system on four levels, store them temporarily in the racking system, retrieve them from there and transfer them to the AGV,” says Westfalia project engineer Johannes Borchert, explaining the central vertical line. “To ensure the necessary speed, the vertical conveyors are each equipped with a single-depth telescopic fork. This ensures reliable operation and a high level of redundancy thanks to the separate VC-arrangement.” An VC is always in operation when maintenance is required. The programmable logic controller (PLC), which Westfalia also supplied and programmed, has the necessary interface to the higher-level AGV control system, which also handles the storage management of the intermediate buffer.
![[Translate to Englisch:] Einfachtiefe Teleskopgabel übernimmt Palette von den AGVs.](/fileadmin/_processed_/6/2/csm_Einfachtiefe_Teleskopgabel_%C3%BCbernimmt_Palette_von_den_AGVs_1d4788db5b.jpg "[Translate to Englisch:] Einfachtiefe Teleskopgabel übernimmt Palette von den AGVs.")
