The 7 highlights of LogiMAT2023
Whether you missed this years show or didn’t have enough time to stroll around, my personal list of 7 highlights from LogiMAT 2023 might provide you with valuable links and thoughts. The entries to this list made it purely based on my very subjective opinion.
I did not receive any money or other benefits from any of the companies mentioned.
#1: Smart pouch loading optimization
The hype around pouch sorters clearly cooled down. The additional touches for filling or emptying the pouches reduces the appeal of this e-com and return handling machine. So, its always interesting if someone comes up with a clever idea for these process steps.
Like ferag did with a multi-wheel table to optimize the orientation of goods before dropping them in the pouch. We all know this: how you orient an object very much determines whether it slides easily in a pocket or pouch. Really clever solution, well done ferag and Cellumation (the company behind this device)
#2: Like Opex Sure Sort but better?
American based Opex has a great solution for small items sorting and order consolidation.
China based HCRobots obviously studied this solution very intensively and actually introduced some smart improvements. They allow for a larger range of items / broader SKU range and together with this they also made the entire machine more modular.
The rack of target boxes or totes is actually a set of movable shelves which can be easily adapted to different target load units. And as the target boxes rack is a modular assembly of shelves, an entire set of boxes can be replaced in one go – provided that the software supports such an operation mode. We have yet to see whether HCRobots will achieve the same level of reliability as the original. But for sure its a clever improvement of the concept.
#3: HaiRobotics: clever …and confusing
Let’s move on to a very flexible and scalable Goods-to-Person (GtP) concept: AMRs with a mast of up to 10m height for box storage and retrieval operations. Yes, your thought is correct, that is not new. Clever is the integration of such an AMR with an on-board buffer for multiple retrievals and puts in one run and a combined sorting and buffer tower right next to the GtP workstation, termed the HaiStation. Really good concept!
Image copyright: HaiRobotics
But why HaiRobotics also promotes a KIVA like concept with AMRs moving around entire racks instead of just the required box / SKU leaves me confused. Especially as their racks can build much higher than the Amazon / KIVA original and hence even more unneeded mass and articles are moved around. If you know a good reason to do this instead of the above described solution, please let me know.
#4: Ingenious little plastic part
But now for something completely different: a little plastic seal. We all know these plastic strips used to seal a transport box or container. Every transport of such a sealed box or container ends with the plastic strip cut and thrown away. What a great idea of ACME to make these seals of biodegradable plastic! Apparently I’m not the only one being excited. At time of writing the biodegradable seals are sold out on their website.
#5: The solution for discontinued controls
Probably much more important than biodegradable plastic seals is something I almost overlooked at LogiMAT: the booth of a company named makro electronics. Why are they on my highlights list? One of their offerings is the repair of discontinued industrial controls. And I mean repair in the true sense of the word: they do not replace entire circuit boards or full control units. makro electronics actually repairs broken controls which are not supported by the original supplier any more.
If you ever suffered from a key controls component which broke and the supplier decided not to help, you understand the value of someone like makro electronics.
#6: New alternative for depalletizing
Their booth was not very appealing and therefore I almost overlooked another interesting company, the Skilled Group from Italy. Nomen est omen: they really seem to be a group of skilled engineers for robotics in material handling (maybe not so much for booth design 🙂 ).
At first they look like a Cimcorp alternative, which they probably are too. But their key feature in my opinion are their depalletizing solutions. A space which is currently dominated by Riantics / the Koerber group.
A great feature of the Skilled Group depalletizing is the option to not only depalletize one case or one entire layer but also only one line. Pretty often the demand is higher than one case but less than an entire layer. Then the option to depalletize one or several lines comes really handy.
#7: Gebhardt Upstream
You probably expected the new Gebhardt storage and retrieval solution for totes to be on the top of my list. Actually I was tempted to not include them at all. Let me explain why it is on the list, but also why I almost deleted “Upstream” from this list.
Obviously it is a really innovative solution for a scalable vertical axis for shuttle base mini-load storage and retrieval. The vertical axis is the bottleneck of practically all shuttle installations. Therefore a scalable alternative to the conventional lifts is a really clever idea. So “well done Gebhardt” and end of the text?
Image copyright: GEBHARDT Intralogistics Group
Well, actually there are some aspects which are not “well done” in my opinion. Gebhardt decided to place the transfer locations between shuttles and lifting-bots at the center of a 3 totes deep storage section which is accessible by the shuttles from both adjacent aisles.
This means that on top of the buffer locations (which form a triangle of empty space above), in every second aisle 25% of the storage locations are lost – assuming that the remaining storage positions in the center of such a 3 deep section are dedicated to one of the aisles only. The latter is probably required due to various existing IP for inter-aisle transfer between shuttles.
But even without a clear dedication, the geometry and the lost storage spaces stay the same. Which translates in unfavorable costs and especially lower storage density. Also Upstream requires a tote which is compatible with the gripper used by the lifting-bot, limiting the load-unit versatility compared to conventional shuttle solutions.
And therefore I’m unsure whether Upstream is really a highlight of LogiMAT2023. BTW Gebhardt, if you want to discuss about an alternative solution for the Upstream buffer locations, please reach out to me.
This ends the little list of my very subjective highlights selection. Your remarks and your opinions are always valued. Either here at this site or at the referring article on LinkedIn (the latter provides probably better visibility for your comments 🙂 ).