Technical Highlights and Groundbreaking Innovations: BEUMER equips the new HUB for Hermes in Hesse
With an overall investment of around 45 million Euros, the Hermes Logistik Group is expanding its local presence to include a new distribution centre (HUB) in Friedewald, Hesse. Positioned at the very heart of Germany, immediately next to the A4, the new 18,000 sqm distribution centre is intended to increase the performance capacity of the Hermes Logistik Group’s KEP service (courier and express packages), beginning in January 2009. In the pursuit of its growth strategy, the company is currently focusing on the constant expansion of its domestic infrastructure in Germany. Already in October 2007, Hermes launched a new HUB in the Northrhine-Westphalian Hückelhoven. At the heart of both this newly operational and the planned distribution centre, BEUMER distribution and sortation installations handle the many different shipments and luggage items transported by Hermes baggage services. The planned sorting installation at Friedewald is marked by technical innovations that raise the bar in the area of sorting and distribution technology.
The Hermes Logistik Group is investing approx. 25 million Euros into its cutting-edge sorting centre in Hesse. In addition to the handling of package shipments, the new distribution hub will also cover sorting services for national and international travel baggage as well as outsized shipments for a variety of clients. All in all, the new centre is laid out for around 23,000 shipments per hour.
For the conveying and sortation equipment of its centre, the Hermes Logistik Group has turned to the Beckum-based BEUMER Group.
The parcel service has already been relying on the innovative technology offered by the specialists for intralogistic equipment and solutions for a number of years. After the fast realisation, successful launch and faultless operation of the high-capacity parcel sorter BS 25 E Tray and the small goods sorter BS 7 Belt Tray in Hückelhoven, Hermes decided to turn to another innovative BEUMER solution for use in its HUB at Friedewald. BEUMER will equip the centre that will already be the seventh HUB of the Hermes Logistic Group with two BS25 E Tray Sorters for parcels and the newly designed vertical sorter BS55 E Tray Sorter for travel baggage and outsized shipments.
BEUMER Vertical Sorter offers Technical Highlights
With the new development of the vertical sorter, the BEUMER Group again sets new standards in the area of sortation and distribution technology. With a vertically designed loop, BEUMER has managed to optimise the handling of luggage or other unwieldy shipments. This vertical sorter offers the advantage of a gapless succession of the rectangular trays on the straight sorter strand. The trays are only lowered at the return pulley after passing the final discharge point, at which point they return to their original position. The closed tray surface makes faults caused by critical goods a thing of the past, increasing the reliability and availability of the equipment considerably.
Introduction of Certified Volume Monitoring and Optical Character Recognition
Another highlight of the new sorting installation at Friedewald is the volume monitoring solution integrated into the sorting, used for the first time at the HUB Hückelhoven. Through close cooperation with Vitronic Dr.-Ing. Stein Bildverarbeitungssysteme GmbH, a global leader for industrial image processing, BEUMER can offer the automated monitoring of item volumes. A laser system scans the volume for each item on one or two sorting trays, depending on its size, which is then communicated to the Hermes IT system. Any warping in the sorter trays as well as their height tolerances, which cannot be avoided in everyday operations, are automatically identified and compensated by the volume monitoring system. This volume monitoring system has been awarded a seal of conformity by the PTB as the responsible regulatory authority and thus meets all regulatory requirements for its Europe-wide application.
Since many parcels shipped via the Hermes Logistic Group are sent by private clients, the complete sorting and distribution installation includes an integrated optical character recognition system. This system allows the recognition of both machine-printed and handwritten addresses. This enables the Hermes IT system to access the data on the delivery forms and allocate the shipment to the correct destination. Illegible addresses are handled by manual video coding.
Dr. Christoph Beumer, chairman of the board and managing partner of the BEUMER Group sees the future of intralogistics in such innovative technologies: “With our introduction of this procedure, we are expanding our range of identification solutions to include a highly complex and future-proof system”, he explains about the use of volume monitoring and plain type recognition in BEUMER sorting installations.
Bespoke Design
The BEUMER Group stands for both innovative and high-quality technology and for the individual handling of its projects. Many installations are tailored specifically to suit the needs of the client and no two designs are alike. In the case of the new distribution centre at Friedewald, BEUMER thus uses spiral chutes with alternating rotation directions for each second discharge at the destinations of the sorting and distribution equipment to account for the limited space available. BEUMER combines an upper spiral with an offset, alternating lower spiral to form the slide, which creates a space for the passage of roll containers between the destinations.
BEUMER will begin with the installation of the sorting equipment in June 2008. The launch of operations is planned to take place already in early 2009.
