Bell Bay Aluminium has more than a year with technology in difficult conditions
Dematic has installed automated guided vehicles (AGVs) designed specifically for outdoor 24/7 weather use in Tasmania and is looking back on a full year of use.
The integrated automated technology, software and services firm, which is better known for its inner-warehouse intralogistics solutions, was brought in to help aluminium smelter Bell Bay Aluminium (BBA) with its on-site logistics task.
This is the first time Dematic as a global company has worked with a customer to adapt its AGVs for outdoor all weather use and BBA uses it as a show piece which has caught the interest of other businesses as far off as Iceland, Dematic says.
BBA produces around 190,000 tonnes of aluminium a year.
The company previously faced challenges around hiring workers for a 24-hour shift in its outdoor yard, due to the impact of variable and harsh weather conditions on workers.
“Previously, Bell Bay Aluminium required four forklift drivers, one on each 12-hour shift to transport the bundles of ingots to the warehouse, as the aluminium smelter is a 24/7 operation,” Dematic quotes BBA specialist engineer process control systems Tim Clark a saying.
“This is a very repetitive task with over 114 trips per day, exposing the operators at times to some rather harsh weather conditions in the outdoor warehouse.”
The challenging environment was also a challenge for the vendor.
“With Bell Bay Aluminium, we had to take into account environmental and product challenges, due to outdoor all weather use and the transport of heavy aluminum product,” Dematic business development manager Thomas Wilson says.
“We worked closely with Bell Bay Aluminium to modify their AGVs so they were fit for purpose.
“This included using wheels appropriate for outdoor conditions, rather than castor wheels that are designed for the flat surface warehouse floor.
“We also increased the capacity of the AGVs so they could lift and transport up to 4.5 tonnes if required.”
BBA’s AGVs, which have now been in use for more than a year, carry stacks of 80 aluminium ingots which are produced at a rate of 15 ingots per minute, providing a stack every 5 to 6 minutes.
The AGVs make a 500 metre return trip to the outside yard where the ingots are stacked on the ground two high in groups of 48.
Each stack is held together with a plastic strap which can break, so the AGVs are programmed to complete an automated visual safety check before picking up and unloading the stack.
The use of AGVs instead of human operated forklifts has increased safety at BBA by reducing the amount of time workers are near heavy aluminium ingots, and sensors on the AGVs ensure they can safely operate around workers and other vehicles.
“AGVs have helped Bell Bay Aluminium to achieve labour efficiencies as well as improved safety for our workers,” Clark says.
“Our staff are really supportive of our decision to use AGVs for these repetitive tasks, were involved in having the AGVs wrapped as R2D2 and Wall-E characters and are looking at further opportunities where AGVs could be used to eliminate repetitive tasks.”