Langenfeld / Borgholzhausen, May 12, 2026 - With high-quality products and nutritional medicine expertise, Orthomol pharmazeutische Vertriebs GmbH, headquartered in Langenfeld, has been developing micronutrient combinations for various applications for more than 30 years. The dietary supplements, certified as premium quality, help people lead healthy, active lives.
“We literally started in the garage. With a team consisting of Glagau, Glagau again, and Glagau once more,” Orthomol founder Dr. Kristian Glagau once said in a 2009 interview. In 1991, he founded Orthomol with a two-person team in a private home in Langenfeld. His idea was to produce micronutrient combinations based on orthomolecular nutritional medicine. A remarkable success story: Today, the company employs around 600 people across three locations and distributes Orthomol products in 39 countries. Owner Nils Glagau leads the company as the second-generation head of a management team that now consists of four members.
State-of-the-art technical equipment and robust quality management run like a common thread through the history of the company, which sees itself as a health partner to its customers. Ready for life - and ready for the next step, including in logistics: In 2024, the North Rhine-Westphalian intralogistics automation specialist Westfalia Technologies GmbH & Co. KG helped build another bridge to the future.
The new conveyor bridge went into operation in September 2024. Following the site expansion at the headquarters in Langenfeld, it connects the Orthomol locations at Elisabeth-Selbert-Straße 12 and 21 - the existing building and the new production building - across the street. Westfalia has brought the combined personnel and transport bridge - a steel structure weighing approximately 54 tons that was installed using a heavy-duty crane in April 2024 - to life. It is equipped with custom-fit conveyor modules for all specific loading units, as well as a conveyor interface for manual transfer and unloading via forklifts on both sides of the bridge, including two vertical transfer units.
“Move large quantities of pallets efficiently and quickly between the ground and upper floor”
On both sides of the conveyor bridge, these 9.7-meter-high vertical transfer units lift the loaded load units from the ground floor by 7.5 meters in seconds to approximately 7.9 meters on the upper floor at the level of the bridge. The roller conveyors on the lifting carriages transfer the loading units to a roller conveyor section, which in turn transfers them to the transfer car (T-Car) on the conveyor bridge. Conversely, the chain hoists pick up load units coming from the conveyor loops and transport them to the three unloading stations at the two locations - with up to 36 double cycles and a theoretical throughput of 72 pallets per hour. “In the newer production building at Elisabeth-Straße 21, there was previously only a low-capacity elevator in front of the pallet lifters, which required time-consuming loading and unloading procedures,” recalls Michael Neeten, Head of Technical Operations at Orthomol. “Especially there, we can now move large quantities of pallets between the ground floor and upper floor very efficiently and quickly.”
With approximately 38 double cycles, the Westfalia T-Car equipped with a chain conveyor transports about 76 load units per hour over a double rail spanning a good 25 meters in height, on the 27-meter-long and six-meter-wide bridge. The load units, which are up to 1.1 meters wide, 1.3 meters long, and 2.2 meters high, weigh up to 1.33 tons; loading aids include Euro and industrial pallets, IBCs, Chep Pallecon iCONIC pallets, and H1 plastic pallets.
Fabian Spitz: “Maximum reliability for the customer”
“We received the inquiry from the planning firm IHB Schepper,” says Simon Zeitvogel, Project Manager at Westfalia, describing the order. “The scope includes 53 drives for the pallet conveyor technology, the mechanics and control systems for the roller conveyors, chain conveyors, turntables, angle transfer units, and the T-Car manufactured and assembled by Westfalia, the HvO panels, the supplied vertical conveyors, and the machine protection and fire protection doors through which our T-Car passes. A particular challenge was the limited structural space in the existing building and on the bridge. The building dimensions were already fixed.” The conveyor system is connected to the customer’s own material flow control system.
The goal was a high degree of automation - reliable material flows that integrate seamlessly into the company’s processes. “The Westfalia team solved this challenge with detailed planning and simulation as early as the sales phase,” explains Fabian Spitz, Deputy Sales Director Technologies & Systems at Westfalia. “This allows us to achieve maximum implementation reliability for the customer.”
Crucial for production and logistics
Michael Neeten explains the critical importance of the conveyor bridge for production and logistics as part of the site expansion: “Filling and packaging take place on both sides. Raw material deliveries are made to both sites. With the conveyor bridge, we achieve significantly greater flexibility in managing the internal material flow according to current needs and capacities. We minimize handling effort and significantly reduce internal truck traffic. In this way, we make a substantial contribution to our sustainability strategy.”
“With the automated conveyor bridge, we reduce manual pallet handling and supply production and shipping with precision. This allows us to optimally integrate the new production building into existing material flows,” the Head of Technical Operations continues. “Westfalia has met the requirements at the highest technological level and delivered a real competitive edge for our intralogistics on schedule - we are very satisfied.”
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