Australia’s largest contract bottler, Vinpac International, has invested in more warehouse automation with Dematic Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) to help boost productivity and efficiency at its South Australian facility.
Founded in 1975 to provide contract bottling services to customers in the Australian wine industry and beyond, Vinpac bottles over 10 million 9LE cases annually and distributes to over 500 customers. It operates out of the Barossa and McLaren Vale wine regions in South Australia.
“We are absolutely thrilled to be making an investment in three AGVs for the future growth of our Angaston facility,” said Andrew Holdback, Group Operations Manager at Vinpac International.
“The safety of our team is paramount, so the deployment of these AGVs will help to enhance the working environment for our valued team members and will deliver the best level of service possible to our customers,” Holdback said.
The advanced, self-charging Dematic AGVs are designed to increase efficiency, productivity, accuracy and safety in manufacturing and distribution centres (DCs), achieving this with high precision laser guidance and the latest safety scanner technology.
Dematic AGVs increase productivity and reliability because they can work 24 hours a day, every day of the year. They improve efficiency and accuracy of operations by minimising mistakes and workplace accidents, which provides significant improvements in occupational health and safety.
“We are very excited to be working with Vinpac on this project,” said Tony Raggio, General Manager for AGVs at Dematic.
“The Vinpac AGV system will transfer finished goods from production lines to conveyors and manage the empty pallet stacks to and from the palletisers and de-stackers,” Raggio explained.
The AGVs are capable of lifting loads of up to 1,500 kg to a height of four metres. They are powered by high amp hour, maintenance-free batteries and can drive themselves onto charging floor plates at times of inactivity for battery top up as required.
The design of the AGVs allows them to withstand the typically challenging environment of a warehouse, whilst providing a 360° safety field of protection.
For maximum safety in an environment with people and other material handling equipment, the AGVs have three obstruction sensors. These sensors identify any unexpected object within the scanner’s horizontal sensing plane.
The obstruction sensor has two sensor fields – one protection field and one warning field. When an obstacle is detected in the warning field, which is longer and wider than the protection field, the AGV slows down to below normal walking pace. When an object is detected in the protection field, the safety PLC triggers an emergency stop within the AGV and it remains stopped until the obstruction is cleared.
The AGVs also have four emergency-stop buttons, one in each corner. When pushed, they trigger an emergency stop until the button is released manually, and the reset button is pressed.
Dematic supplies AGVs in Oceania, having delivered over 700 AGVs in more than 120 projects across the region. Dematic AGVs are designed, engineered, programmed, and manufactured in Sydney Australia using world-leading component systems.
Source: Dematic press release