Until now, the transport robotics specialist has mainly converted vehicles from well-known manufacturers for driverless operation or designed customer-specific special vehicles. Now the company is presenting its own development, Vario Move. Andreas Böttner, CEO of EK Automation, says: "We have made use of our decades of experience in the automation of vehicles. The Vario Move was created on this basis - with the aim of adopting and optimizing the best features of existing solutions and making the product as a whole even better."

High-quality machine components and the clever design ensure that the life cycle can be doubled compared to conventional automated industrial trucks. At the same time, the delivery time is halved and the costs for the overall investment can be reduced by up to ten percent.

Greater efficiency thanks to a longer life cycle

AGVs are very robust and designed for a long service life. However, when the wear limit is reached, the vehicles must be replaced or refurbished. EK Automation saw significant potential for optimization in the life cycle of automated series industrial trucks, which is usually around a decade. With a modular construction, high-quality components and a maintenance-friendly design, the Vario Move achieves twice the service life.

The new vehicle consists of a drive unit and various attachments. Regardless of whether the user requires a lifting or transport vehicle, the same drive unit is always used, which can be equipped with different load handling attachments for the respective transport tasks. The front end is designed so that various load handling attachments can be fitted to a standard interface. EK offers standardized modules for this purpose, which can be quickly integrated and separated again.

Modern vehicle technology also improves safety in operations. All the main navigation technologies available can be used for the automated transport vehicles. Their Li-ion energy system is maintenance-free and enables fully automated charging.

Maintenance-friendly design

The maintenance of automated series industrial trucks used to be very time-consuming. In order to make the various components accessible, the entire front end often had to be dismantled. This is where the design of the Vario Move comes to the rescue, as the designers have focused on making all components as easy to access as possible.

The front cover can be removed, exposing the entire technology. This means that all components can be worked on without time-consuming disassembly. The maintenance-friendly design, together with the robust construction, leads to considerable cost and time savings during servicing and repairs. The standardization of the design for different vehicle types - lifting masts at different heights and various load handling attachments can be selected as required - also has the advantage of reducing the amount of training required for in-house service technicians.

Delivery time halved

Another aspect is the up to 50 percent shorter delivery time. "Our customers have very specific requirements for their automated guided vehicles. This also applies to products from the standard range, where, for example, load handling attachments are required that vary in height and width. In the past, we often had to adapt the design of the basic series vehicles when automating vehicles from different manufacturers. This involved a lot of effort and extra costs," explains Böttner. As both the drive unit and the load handling attachments are standardized in the Vario Move, the delivery time of the vehicles can be significantly accelerated.

The new vehicle will be presented to trade visitors at LogiMAT in March 2020 and will be available from around the end of 2020.