Tschabrun relies on HUBTEX with Mobile Easykey

Handling materials in the timber industry requires safe order picking. The Austrian timber and building materials wholesaler Tschabrun has been relying on HUBTEX electric multidirectional sideloaders for 15 years. With variable handling capacities and piece picking, which is increasingly in demand, these trucks convince with flexibility and cost savings in the processes. The fleet management tool of the HUBTEX partner Mobile Easykey additionally ensures prudent equipment use and leads to a considerable reduction in damage to vehicles and peripherals.

The Austrian group of companies Hermann Tschabrun GmbH is active as a timber and building material wholesaler almost all over Austria. Large and heavy wooden boards as well as sensitive blanks require gentle and safe transport. An appropriate order picking solution must meet this qualitative requirement. In addition, the timber trade has changed considerably in the past decade: An order may well consist of many individual boards in different colours. The order picking system must therefore be designed to meet the customer’s order – small, flexible and fast.

New forklifts for higher requirements

In order to be able to grow with the increasing demands in warehouse logistics, Tschabrun decided to invest in a total of five new electric multi-directional sideloaders from HUBTEX: Two PhoeniX MQ 50s, two PhoeniX MQ 80s and one MaxX 45 vehicle. The company’s investment was primarily aimed at avoiding downtime and ensuring high availability. Tschabrun customers can order daily until late afternoon and get the goods delivered early the next day. Harald Bickel, logistics manager at Tschabrun, explains: “We appreciate HUBTEX very much because of the reliable operating times, especially in the high usage age of the equipment. This has already been proven by the multi-directional sideloaders, some of which have been in use at our company since 2005. With 1500 operating hours per year, their mileage was considerable. However, in order to be able to continue to operate economically in line with the times and under high time pressure, we have ordered three new units.” HUBTEX configures the devices customer-specifically after a detailed analysis of the overall warehouse processes and the warehouse typography. Due to the long-standing cooperation, the general conditions and the infrastructure in Tschabrun’s warehouse were already known, so that the planning of the additionally desired features was the focus and the new devices could already be delivered eight months after the start of the project. 

Flexible and reliable in use

The individual boards are picked gently via a vacuum suction device with extendable telescopes. Other individual adaptations that HUBTEX realised especially for Tschabrun include inductive guidance in the aisles of the warehouse. By following an inductive wire integrated into the floor, the vehicle always travels at the correct distance in front of the racking. This has the advantage of moving the racks closer together in the warehouse. This creates space for additional units and new storage capacity. At the desired position, the semi-automatic shelf approach comes into play for exact vehicle positioning by means of a touch panel. Thanks to a barcode tape mounted on the racking, the position of the unit in the aisle is known at all times. Once the driver has entered the position of a compartment via his vehicle terminal, he can only approach this compartment to store and retrieve goods there. This reduces the risk of wrong compartments being approached and wrong products being removed during order picking. Since the forklifts lift goods up to a height of 7.5 metres, a camera system also helps the driver to store and retrieve goods in this area more easily. For the first time at Tschabrun, the patented HX steering system from HUBTEX is also in use on all three newly delivered forklifts. In the aisle, the vehicles can only move along the inductive guidance line, but outside this area, the HX endless steering offers optimal manoeuvrability by changing from longitudinal to diagonal to transverse travel without stopping in between… As the change of direction takes place while driving, the wheels now no longer turn on the spot. This reduces the time needed to change the wheels as well as wear and offers optimal manoeuvrability. The result: low wear with high handling performance.

More safety for employees and vehicles

In order to ensure a higher residual load capacity, the two new MQ 80 models have a basic load capacity of eight tonnes. At a height of 7.5 metres, these two vehicles still lift 4500 kilograms. A built-in electronic load chart with fork tilt indicator automatically shuts down the vehicle in case of overload. This increases the safety of the workers and reduces the risk of damage. A patented crash sensor has the same goal; access is via RFID chip from Mobile Easykey for the employees. The trucks can only be put into operation if the employee carries his chip with him and is authorised to do so. If there is a collision with the vehicle, the crash sensor stops the device. In order to continue driving, the employee concerned has to inform his superior who can initiate a measure – whether assessment by the HUBTEX service team or the decision to continue driving. By documenting the accidents in the Mobile Easykey database, the time and driver can also be traced in principle; the data exchange is fully automatic and encrypted via the WLAN system. All in all, this promotes careful handling of the forklifts and safety in the warehouse. This in turn leads to less maintenance and minimised downtimes. Furthermore, the use of the chip system also prevents a vehicle from being put into operation by external and unauthorised persons. Ergonomic equipment with an air-suspended seat and an armrest for more driver comfort rounds off the new features of the HUBTEX vehicles.

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