The TGW KingDrive® Technology opens new doors in the materials handling world. Dividing the conveyor system into small functional sections enables changes to be made to accommodate different and new requirements affecting the items to be handled or the material flow itself. KingDrive® is the world’s most flexible and scalable light goods conveyor systems.
“We listen to our customers who told us that they needed a long lasting, highly efficient conveyor system and we took this requirement as the starting point for the development of our new KingDrive® conveyor”, explains Christoph Wolkerstorfer, Managing Director of the materials handling equipment specialist TGW Mechanics. “The new conveyor technology has to be highly reliable during a long life cycle, provide high performance, be adaptable to changing requirements and it must be able to easily grow and change with the expansion of our customers’ businesses.” TGW’s development team has succeeded in producing a conveyor design that provides for all these requirements in one single conveyor: the KingDrive® Technology.
First users are highly satisfied
“It really is a revolutionary technology compared to everything we have seen on the conveyor market so far,” says Jürgen Dussel, Operations Manager at the German pharmaceuticals wholesaler Fiebig and one of the first users of the KingDrive® Technology. “It is extremely quiet in operation, consumes far less energy than other technologies and has performed perfectly since the very first minute of operation.”
The basic concept behind this all new conveyor system is that the conveying function is broken down to its smallest functional unit – the individual roller. “Consider an ant colony if you will. Ants are super-organisms operating as a unified entity, supporting the colony with each ant acting independently”, says Wolkerstorfer. “This way they are able to be flexible; able to adapt and react on whatever obstacle they encounter. And we follow the same principle with the KingDrive® conveyor technology.” Each roller can easily be controlled independently from the others. Only the rollers required to complete a task or movement are activated, they can change the way in which they operate by adjusting acceleration, speed and function. The adaptability of the KingDrive® system is designed for change, it is easily expandable and consumes the absolute minimum energy reducing total cost of ownership for our clients.
Fast installation and commissioning
Plug & Play – that’s not just a buzzword in TGW’s new conveyor technology, it’s a reality. All procedures and processes in the KingDrive® system are highly automated. “Although each of our conveyor solutions is customized to the customer’s individual needs, we are able to easily configure and reconfigure the function of every single conveyor element using our design tools. This results in a highly automated configuration of the controls software,” explains Wolkerstorfer. Following these principles TGW produces, wires, configures and tests all conveyor parts in-house before shipping the conveyors to the customer’s site. On site the Plug & Play functionality offers the additional benefits of the shortest installation and commissioning times.
Jürgen Dussel confirms that the new KingDrive® conveyor solution “has been installed and commissioned in record time. We have used conveyor systems for a long period but it was the first time that we’ve experienced the Plug & Play concept and it really has worked for us.”
A low-wear technology for long lasting performance
“A conveyor system has to operate for a long time. Therefore it was important for us to create a technology that needs as little maintenance as possible,” says Christoph Wolkerstorfer. TGW’s product development team determined that a gearless motorized roller was the answer to this requirement. The KingDrive® roller technology provides low maintenance cost, flexible speed and acceleration and adaptable payload characteristics in light goods conveyor systems. When used in combination with state-of-the-art controls technology based on highly standardized components, this new KingDrive® roller technology will reduce the overall life cycle costs of an automated distribution center.
The KingDrive® Technology offers an all encompassing solution, exceptional performance with the customer’s future in mind. It is flexible by design, offers high performance and a long operational life as well as low maintenance and highest energy efficiency.
TGW Logistics Group
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