Intralogistics with robots, tires and digital solutions

As an inter­na­tion­al trade fair for intral­o­gis­tics solu­tions and process man­age­ment from May 31 to June 2, 2022 in Stuttgart, Logi­MAT sets new stan­dards. The tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­ny Con­ti­nen­tal will also be exhibit­ing at the largest annu­al intral­o­gis­tics trade fair in Europe. Under the slo­gan “Shap­ing the Future of Intral­o­gis­tics,” the com­pa­ny will show­case pio­neer­ing solu­tions from the fields of Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR) as well as tires, dig­i­tal solu­tions and solu­tions for mate­r­i­al han­dling technology.

“As a tire man­u­fac­tur­er, auto­mo­tive sup­pli­er and pro­duc­er of solu­tions for indus­tri­al pro­duc­tion, we bring a com­plete­ly unique pro­file to sup­port the intral­o­gis­tics indus­try. In this way, we help the indus­try to quick­ly and effec­tive­ly inte­grate suit­able new tech­nolo­gies into its prod­ucts, there­by sig­nif­i­cant­ly increas­ing val­ue creation.”

- Mario Bran­co, Head of Busi­ness Devel­op­ment Off-Highway

Autonomously acting robot for logistics tasks in production

The com­pa­ny is show­cas­ing a state-of-the-art, autonomous­ly dri­ving trans­port vehi­cle devel­oped in-house that fur­ther increas­es effi­cien­cy in pro­duc­tion. This Autonomous Mobile Robot (AMR) auto­mates the flow of mate­ri­als in pro­duc­tion plants, ware­hous­es or logis­tics cen­ters. The robust vehi­cle is equipped with proven tech­nolo­gies: lidar sen­sors for 360-degree detec­tion of the envi­ron­ment, 3D cam­era sys­tems, intel­li­gent soft­ware and an option­al ultra-wide­band trans­mit­ter for pre­cise live track­ing in the fleet make the robot­ic vehi­cle a valu­able employ­ee. It autonomous­ly exe­cutes trans­port orders, can avoid obsta­cles and cal­cu­late alter­na­tive routes. An option­al fleet man­age­ment sys­tem can coor­di­nate a larg­er fleet of AMRs.

The Group ini­tial­ly designed the autonomous vehi­cle for its own ben­e­fit: engi­neers at the tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­ny could not find a suit­able solu­tion on the mar­ket to make the mate­r­i­al flow and han­dling of heavy prod­uct com­po­nents at its own plants more effi­cient. “We devel­oped a cus­tomized robot­ics solu­tion that is cur­rent­ly being inte­grat­ed very suc­cess­ful­ly into every­day pro­duc­tion at our plants for hydraulic brake sys­tems in Slo­va­kia and Chi­na. The intel­li­gent trans­port robot will also be mass-pro­duced for exter­nal cus­tomers as ear­ly as this year,” said Pierre Pom­per, Head of Autonomous Mobile Robots at Continental.

High-performance timing belts for stacker cranes

High-bay ware­hous­es are at the heart of many logis­tics process­es. Load­ing and unload­ing them effec­tive­ly is a major chal­lenge that is increas­ing­ly being han­dled by stack­er cranes with belt dri­ves. As a core ele­ment of intral­o­gis­tics process­es, they posi­tion the goods quick­ly and pre­cise­ly. Togeth­er with part­ners, Con­ti­nen­tal has devel­oped a new dri­ve tech­nol­o­gy based on the prin­ci­ple of the pul­ley and using a deflect­ed belt dri­ve. A Syn­chro­drive tim­ing belt plays off sev­er­al advan­tages over the rope tech­nol­o­gy often used: min­i­mized wear, low­er main­te­nance, short­er posi­tion­ing times and longer replace­ment inter­vals. The belt tech­nol­o­gy does not require lubri­ca­tion and has already proven itself in series pro­duc­tion — under heavy loads as well as in deep-freeze con­di­tions at tem­per­a­tures as low as minus 30 degrees. Con­ti­nen­tal can pro­duce the com­pounds required for the pro­duc­tion of the cor­re­spond­ing belts in-house.

Current tire portfolio for logistics and port industry

Whether the trans­port of heavy loads is in demand, longer dis­tances have to be cov­ered or auto­mat­ed vehi­cles in mate­r­i­al trans­port are involved, the cor­po­ra­tion will be pre­sent­ing its cur­rent tire port­fo­lio for the logis­tics and port indus­try and its dig­i­tal solu­tions for more effi­cient tire use. Dri­ven by the pan­dem­ic, hygiene reg­u­la­tions in par­tic­u­lar have risen sharply in the phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal and food sec­tors and in a wide range of oth­er indus­tries. D’s com­pa­ny is address­ing these require­ments with its Clean tires, which it will also be show­ing at the trade fair. After all, it is pre­cise­ly in high­ly hygien­ic pro­duc­tion con­di­tions that dri­ving and brak­ing marks should be reduced as far as pos­si­ble. Tires such as the SC20, CS20 and CSEasy as Clean ver­sions thus vis­i­bly con­tribute to a clean­er and more hygien­ic work­ing environment.

The com­pa­ny is also bring­ing its new three-brand strat­e­gy to life at Logi­MAT. Under the Con­ti­nen­tal, Gen­er­al Tire and Barum brands, Con­ti­nen­tal offers a cus­tomized port­fo­lio of robust sol­id tires for dif­fer­ent indus­tri­al appli­ca­tions and cus­tomer require­ments. Regard­less of whether for the high­est require­ments, such as 24/7 use, or for appli­ca­tions with low­er intensities.

A bird’s eye view: ProViu 360 offers all-round visibility around the industrial truck

Any­one dri­ving an indus­tri­al truck across the hall can­not have his eyes every­where. At the same time, acci­dents must be avoid­ed at all costs. It is impor­tant to pro­tect col­leagues who are on foot. Col­li­sions with ver­ti­cal rack struts can cause very high prop­er­ty dam­age. The ProViu 360 dig­i­tal cam­era sys­tem pro­vides the oper­a­tor with a bird’s eye view of his machine. A total of four 1.3‑megapixel cam­eras are used for this pur­pose and pro­vide images in HD res­o­lu­tion, played out on a 10-inch HD touch display.

In col­lab­o­ra­tion with OEM cus­tomers, Con­ti­nen­tal engi­neers can devel­op numer­ous, even very spe­cif­ic sys­tems and func­tions based on the ProViu 360 sys­tem. For exam­ple, spe­cial appli­ca­tions are pos­si­ble that are only need­ed in cer­tain mod­els in a port­fo­lio. In addi­tion to var­i­ous warn­ing func­tions, the devel­op­ment agen­da of the engi­neers and pro­gram­mers also includes sen­sor fusion of cam­era and radar infor­ma­tion or the dis­play of aug­ment­ed real­i­ty content.

Con­ti­nen­tal’s new work lights for indus­tri­al trucks also improve the overview of the work­ing envi­ron­ment. With the four vari­ants Spot, Wide, Ultra-wide and Flood, the port­fo­lio cov­ers all impor­tant appli­ca­tions. The alu­minum hous­ings are built for off-road use and are pro­tect­ed against water and dust accord­ing to the IP6K8 stan­dard. The lumi­naires can with­stand tem­per­a­tures of ‑40 and +90 degrees Cel­sius and are pro­tect­ed against strong vibra­tions. Their flex­i­ble mount­ing sys­tem allows retro­fitting at many dif­fer­ent posi­tions on the indus­tri­al truck.