In recent years, the growth of the material handling industry is huge - driven to a large extent by the continuous growth of e-commerce, which has been expanding its share in the warehouse and industrial fields. According to the data of Cushman&Wakefield, a business broker, e-commerce companies accounted for 28.2% of industrial absorption (taking over vacant space) from 2016 to 2019. In 2020 and 2021, this proportion will soar to about 40%.
It is worth noting that these figures do not include third-party logistics companies, which themselves support a variety of online retailers - which means that e-commerce trends are continuing to drive industry demand - most notably electrification and digitalization.
The design of fast charging battery has been tilted towards the field of material handling
Although electric forklifts have accounted for a large part of the market for decades, the continuous growth and maturity of new battery technologies (such as lithium ion) have made a huge change in the way they are used in the field of material handling.
Although the electric forklift is often more expensive than the internal combustion power model when purchased, it has provided up to 75% of the low operating cost. However, the early battery powered forklift trucks, usually powered by lead-acid battery packs, had some challenges and were not ideal for material handling applications. First is the charging time. When it is completely exhausted, the lead-acid battery usually requires 8 hours of charging time, plus 8 hours of cooling time, which means that the battery pack can only be used for one shift per day. Batteries need to be replaced, watered and maintained, which occupy precious space of core business.
Although the fast charging method is possible in some cases, it affects the warranty of the battery itself. Compared with propane powered forklift trucks -- the only thing needed to keep the machine running is to replace it with a new fuel tank -- these challenges are a major obstacle to adoption.
However, lithium-ion battery systems with fast charging capability change this equation by releasing available opportunistic charging strategies. Although lithium-ion battery design is the most frequently mentioned, the continuous development of battery chemistry and new designs such as lithium iron phosphate continue to add impetus to this trend. Because the lithium ion forklift can be charged quickly, employees can charge their machines during meetings, breaks, etc. This means that a car can be used to cover all three shifts without replacing the battery pack or replacing.
Although the charging station needs to be placed in a useful location within the building, the area previously reserved for charging/cooling/maintenance of the battery pack can now be reused for more production methods.
digitization
The growing supply chain as it continues to become more and more digital has also had an impact on material handling equipment as it operates in distribution centers or other industrial facilities.
With the environment of distribution center becoming more and more digital and automatic, forklift and other material handling equipment OEM manufacturers are required to replace analog signals with digital outputs through CANOpen or SEA J1939 and other protocols. These new digital signals are the first step to transmit these data to the cloud, where they can be read, sent to the remote information processing/cloud platform, and used for further upstream evaluation.
These protocols are now processing data from various internal sensors, such as information about fork positioning and mast height, mast inclination, and even load capacity. In addition to these machine factors, the CAN bus also manages information about equipment health and potential preventive maintenance steps that may be required in the near future.
With this information, managers can schedule any required maintenance at the most appropriate time and avoid downtime that affects normal production processes.
The full digital transformation of distribution centers or other material handling equipment will take years or decades to fully realize. However, as with any long-term transformation, the key first step is to make a basic decision and set a stage for the future process. These trends in electrification and digitization also do not occur in a vacuum they must be viewed in conjunction with other trends that affect the material handling industry. Telematics requires digital signals and data to effectively provide all fleet information on one piece of glass. Autonomy and radar sensing obtain information from these digital signals as well as other signals present in the beacon and warehouse environment.
On the whole, the material handling ecosystem is continuing to develop towards a safer, more interconnected and more independent world.
