Grimsby, Ontario—March 31, 2015—Cimcorp Automation Ltd., a manufacturer and integrator of turnkey robotic gantry-based order fulfillment and tire handling solutions, introduced the CIMCORP 3D Shuttle at ProMat 2015. It is an automatic storage and retrieval solution (AS/RS) for goods-to-man order picking. It uses gantry robot technology integrated with an innovative shuttle device to store and retrieve goods in plastic crates, totes, bins and containers.
Doug Pickard, president, North America, Cimcorp, said, “The North American market is second only to the Asia-Pacific in e-commerce and is expected to command close to $540 billion in sales in 2015. With the CIMCORP 3D Shuttle, the workers’ traditionally laborious task of walking to each storage location to pick individual orders is eliminated. This arms distribution centers and warehouses with a vital tool to increase productivity and effectively serve the rapidly growing e-commerce market.”
When a particular stock-keeping unit (SKU) is required to fulfill an order, the robot gantry retrieves the corresponding tote and deposits it onto the shuttle device. The shuttle travels along the gantry and transports the tote to a conveyor line that feeds the picking stations. Once picking from a tote is complete, it is conveyed back to its location within the storage area.
Kai Tuomisaari, vice president, sales and project, Cimcorp Oy, said, “The CIMCORP 3D Shuttle offers an efficiency that moves up to 1,000 totes per hour. It is cost- and space-efficient, and allows warehouses to retrieve any tote in a storage area with one, fast, fluid movement.”
The CIMCORP 3D Shuttle is suitable for a wide variety of applications in retail, foodservice and e-commerce distribution for which a large number of SKUs are handled or individual orders must be picked. Third-party resellers in particular demand rapid order fulfillment from high SKU counts. The system optimizes space utilization by stacking mixed SKUs directly on the floor, and improves efficiency for goods-to-man order picking by quickly and accurately pulling individual totes from a storage area.
