New order in the frozen food area at Panem Backstube

The company Panem Backstube is expanding its plant in Bleicherode with two new production lines and commissioning AFT as general contractor for the delivery of two new high-bay warehouses and the associated conveyor technology. The storage technology used consists of two channel racks, one of which is in the deep-freeze area at -28 ° C.

The storage and retrieval of pallets is implemented using a shuttle storage and retrieval unit. The connecting conveyor technology ensures that the finished goods pallets are transported from production to the warehouse and from there to dispatch.

The new logistics facility will go into operation in September 2021.

The BMW plant in Berlin is the main plant of BMW-Motorcycles. Since the late 1960s Motorcycles have been produced there.

Now, the production facilities is to be adapted to the latest requirements. So, the electric overhead monorail system (EMS), which transports the motors from the motor production to the assembly line for shoring, is now being completely renewed after 34 years of use.

In the future, the motors will be delivered on trays either directly to the assembly line or will be temporarily stored in a two aisle rack warehouse and accessed from there as required. The warehouse holds the motors on trays on 2 levels. It is approx. 2 m high and has 390 double-deep storing spaces.

We are pleased to have received this order from BMW, because we can look back on a long cooperation: As early as 1997, the driverless floor transport system, which allows the ergonomic assembly of motorcycles, was also supplied and put into operation by AFT. In 2015, the system was expanded to include additional vehicles.

In early June 2020, AFT Shanghai received an order to integrate new model series, including electric cars, into the existing body shop at the BBA plant in Shenyang Tiexi (joint venture with BMW, China).

Here the electric monorail systems (EMS) are expanded, new EMS vehicles are delivered and numerous hangers are adapted to the new requirements. AFT Schopfheim will carry out the engineering and purchasing of relevant purchased parts. All work on site in China, such as steel construction, manufacturing, assembly and commissioning, will be carried out by AFT Shanghai.

As part of the drive for electromobility, the fully electric version of the VW Transporter, the ID.BUZZ, is also to be produced at the VW plant in Hannover.

The ID.BUZZ requires a different kind of “wedding”, unlike the common VW Transporter, so that an additional assembly line must be set up. AFT Schopfheim convinced the customer in the offer phase with sophisticated technical solutions and received the order to adapt the existing electric monorail system in the final assembly to the new requirements. AFT adjusts the new conveying flow accordingly and delivers additional heavy-duty vehicles with hangers. In order to achieve the highest possible degree of ergonomics when working on the vehicles, the hangers are also equipped with lifting devices. The special feature of this conversion is the automatically changeable body mounts, so that both vehicle types, the T7 and the ID.BUZZ, can be produced on the same system.

“After the huge project for VW in Zwickau, we are very happy to support VW’s electromobility initiative in the commercial vehicle plant in Hannover,” says Heiko Hofmann, CEO of the AFT-Group. “We very much appreciate the great trust that VW has in our company.”

In February of this year, AFT successfully received an order as general contractor for the delivery of a highly automated order picking system with a 6-aisle rack warehouse, cross transfer conveyor, pallet conveyor technology, EMS system and control system to DAW SE.

With an experience of 125 years in the field of coating systems, the family owned company DAW SE with its headquarters in Ober-Ramstadt, Germany is the largest private manufacturer of construction paints in Europe with its well-known brands such as Caparol or Alpina.

In order to automate the warehouse for the transport of paint buckets and containers on pallets, the installation should begin in late summer 2021. Already in the offer phase, AFT was able to support the customer in cooperation with the planning office Dobülog with experience and know-how in the finalization of the offer concept. The customer’s wishes, both in terms of technology and processes, were always in the foreground for AFT and were taken into account in the concepts presented on site and implemented accordingly. The constructive elaboration has already started, so that the first manufacturing of the components can begin soon.

AFT is looking forward to a good and successful cooperation!