Don’t be afraid of challenges – AGV can handle a lot

We have recently faced a challenge – to solve the automated transport of material on the euro pallet, which is laid on the floor at the collection points. However, the unloading point is on a roller conveyor at a height of 50 cm. To make matters worse, the traffic lanes were quite complicated and quite narrow. Overall, we evaluated this situation as a real challenge – whether we are at all able to find a suitable solution to the situation (not only to solve technical requirements but mainly to come up with an economically meaningful solution).

Small, flexible, handy solution

We originally considered a mini forklift AGV. This AGV is compact, very flexible and can handle a euro pallet placed on the floor weighing up to 1000 kg. However, unloading the material onto the roller conveyor remained a problem. There was not much space around the conveyor and the additional modifications of the conveyor were associated with several limitations and, of course, required additional investments, which unnecessarily overpriced the proposed solution. We were not satisfied with such a solution, so we kept looking.

Inflated special with high performance

We started thinking about an AGV type forklift. This AGV allows the pallet to be handled on the floor and also allows the pallet to be lifted, even to a height higher than required. The load capacity of this AGV is 1500 kg. Compared to the AGV mini forklift, the dimensions are slightly larger, which means slightly less flexibility in narrow aisles. This shortcoming could be addressed by some adjustments to the workplaces available and these would not represent a significant investment. The bigger problem was in the price, which was already significantly higher compared to the AGV mini forklift. The subsequent calculation of the return on such a solution did not satisfy us. So we continued to look for another solution that would not only be a technical solution to the defined situation, but would also be interesting in terms of the return on such a project.

Excellent price-performance ratio

A suitable solution appeared in the combination of the first two solutions. Because we put a lot of emphasis on price, the development team tried to optimize such a solution as much as possible. The solution was a laser mini forklift AGV. This AGV has retained the flexibility of the first design – the floor plan dimensions are the same. As the required stroke was only up to a height of 50 cm, this function was also optimized. In the end, the development team decided to maintain a stroke of up to 1 meter, which means that it can be used on higher conveyors. The mentioned optimization resulted in a very interesting solution with an excellent price-performance ratio resp. to the functions provided. The calculations of the return of the AGV laser mini forklift solutions were also sufficient. If you are facing a similar situation, we definitely recommend that you consider a laser mini forklift AGV

You can read more information about other types of AGV on the page.

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