Warehouse automation installed to improve bottling operations

Australian contract bottler Vinpac International has selected Dematic automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to help boost productivity and efficiency at its South Australian facility.

Founded in 1975, Vinpac provides contract bottling services to the Australian wine industry and beyond, bottling over 10 million 9 L cases annually for over 500 customers. It operates out of the Barossa and McLaren Vale wine regions in South Australia.

Andrew Holdback, Group Operations Manager at Vinpac International, said, “We are absolutely thrilled to be making an investment in three AGVs for the future growth of our Angaston facility. 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.”

The self-charging Dematic Counterbalance (CB) AGVs are designed to increase efficiency productivity and safety in manufacturing and distribution centres (DCs) with laser guidance and safety scanner technology.

AGVs are capable of working 24/7 every day of the year, which can increase the efficiency of operations. They also help to minimise workplace accidents, improving occupational health and safety standards.

“We are very excited to be working with Vinpac on this project. The Vinpac AGV system will transfer finished goods from production lines to conveyors and manage the empty pallet stacks to/from the palletisers and de-stackers,” explained Tony Raggio, General Manager for AGVs at Dematic.

The AGVs can lift loads of up to 1500 kg to a height of four metres. They are self-charging and can drive themselves onto charging floor plates at hours of inactivity to top up their high amp hour, maintenance-free batteries.

The AGVs can function in the typically challenging environment of a warehouse while providing a 360° safety field of protection. They have three obstruction sensors for personnel and other material handling equipment, designed to identify any unexpected object within the scanner’s horizontal sensing plane. The sensor has a protection field and warning field. When an object is detected in the warning field, which is longer and wider than the protection field, the AGV will slow to below normal walking pace. When it detects an object in the protection field, it will trigger an emergency stop and remain stopped until the obstruction is cleared.

Each corner of the AGV has an emergency-stop button. Once pushed, the vehicle will not move until the emergency stop is released manually and the reset button is pushed.

The AGVs are designed, engineered, programmed and manufactured in Sydney, Australia.