Imhx Supplement 2013

REVIEW A brief review of highlights from the UK’s essential intralogistics event.

FIND OUT: Why the show matters to manufacturers Who launched products and made successful debuts How important the manufacturing sector was in bringing exhibitors ROI on their stand investmentsOrganised by The Manufacturing Technologies Association – www.mta.org.uk

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IMHX 2013

a storming success

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he International Materials Handling Exhibition (IMHX) took place March 19-22 at the NEC, Birmingham. Rob Fisher, director of the Materials Handling Group of IMHX’s organiser, Informa, wraps up manufacturing sector highlights from the show for TM.

It is inevitable that manufactured goods and components will, at some stage of their life, come into contact with a piece of materials handling equipment – whether it is a simple pallet truck or a high-tech automated warehouse system.

As such, logistics really matters for manufacturers who want to move items along the supply chain as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. In today’s economic climate, this is more important than ever in order to be competitive in world markets, so having efficient and reliable materials handling and storage equipment is vital.

Manufacturers visiting IMHX to find ideas to streamline their operations were not disappointed.

With over 400 exhibitors, the event showcased a diverse range of solutions for intralogistics, with many suppliers presenting solutions of specific interest to the manufacturing community.

New blood and old hands

Opened by world land speed record breaker, Richard Noble OBE, project director for the latest record-attempting vehicle, Bloodhound SSC, IMHX 2013 kicked off with an engineering focus from the word go. Mr Noble gave a fascinating presentation to update visitors on the latest news about the jetand rocket-powered car, which aims to pass the 1000mph mark.

Linde Material Handling (UK), a major forklift supplier and IMHX exhibitor is a sponsor of Bloodhound – which will make its first high-speed runs in the Hakskeen Pan, South Africa, towards the end of this year. Linde’s support for this inspiring engineering project extends well beyond mere financial support and the company has dedicated equipment and many man hours in the last year helping the Bloodhound team to load and unload the show car as it visits various venues around the UK. Attracting a world-renowned engineer of Richard’s calibre was a real honour for IMHX and complemented a focus in the intralogistics industry on attracting fresh blood into engineering.

In addition to the Bloodhound, the Skills & Apprenticeships Zone – launched at IMHX 2013 for the first time – also featured one of the vehicles entering the ‘Enduro Challenge’ engineering competition for schools. This competition is organised by the BITA Academy, the dedicated apprenticeship training facility of the British Industrial Truck Association (BITA), joint organiser of IMHX. The competition, which takes place later this year, challenges secondary school students to design, build and race an electrically powered vehicle.

But what about educating and inspiring those already in industry about the newest innovations and practices which can help them improve their logistics?

The IMHX Logistics Excellence Conference featured presentations at strategic level delivered by renowned industry experts, while the IMHX Logistics Case Study Conference offered sessions that outlined best practice from a range of blue-chip companies.

Health & Safety is a primary concern for the materials handling industry and users of its technology.

Recognising the importance of product design for safety, the Design for Safety Competition made a welcome return to IMHX 2013.

Winners in six categories – as judged by an independent panel of experts – were announced on the first day of the show, and the overall ‘Professionals’ Choice’ was decided using visitor voting and revealed on the last day of the exhibition.

This year this prize went to Sentry Protection Products for its innovative Collision Sentry, a forklift collision avoidance system.

Helping raise awareness about potential Materials Handling Solutions to meet specific sector and business needs, IMHX once again featured the AMHSA Pavilion, hosted by the Automated Material Handling Systems Association, in which AMHSA members gave a series of short ‘Meet the Expert’ presentations on key handling automation topics.

Exhibitors were delighted with not only the volume of visitors but also the quality of the leads achieved. For example, Paul Watson, general sales manager for Doosan Industrial Vehicles, commented, “Doosan had an excellent show. We had one of the biggest and most impressive stands with a huge range of products and we believe that it was well worth our investment.”

See overleaf for a visual whistlestop of the show and its key product launches.

RECORD BREAKER

IMHX 2013 attracted record numbers of both visitors and exhibitors:

Visitors: 19,526 Exhibitors: 412

IMHX 2016 WILL TAKE PLACE FROM SEPTEMBER 13-16 IN HALLS 9 TO 12 OF THE NEC. Advance stand booking advised.

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IMHX 20 A visual tour of IMHX 2013’s highlights, from presentations to products launches and contract wins.

IMHX 2013:

Product liftoff

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large number of products made their début at IMHX 2013 including dozens of new forklift models from the big brands in materials handling.

Toyota Material Handling UK previewed its latest products – due for release later in the year – including the new Traigo80 electric-powered forklift and the Lithium Ion warehouse range and Linde Material Handling UK officially unveiled its new reach truck range on the opening morning of the show. The range features models with load capacities from 1.4 to 2.0 tonnes and lift heights up to 13m.

Crown Lift Trucks, meanwhile, displayed not only the nine new products it has introduced in the UK during the past year but also QuickPick Remote, its new semi-automated low-level order picker.

Other product launches which lured in strong visitor attendance came from Yale Europe Materials Handling, which showcased its ‘V’ series of electric counterbalance

forklifts for the first time in the UK and Doosan which unveiled its new 7-series of reach trucks.

An entirely new brand to hit the ‘shelves’ of the UK materials handling market, came from French forklift supplier Manitou which made its UK début at the show.

But of course the world of materials handling solutions extends far beyond forklifts and pallet trucks and there was plenty new to see from UK manufacturers of storage and racking solutions, picking equipment and safety accessories.

See overleaf for comment from four exhibitors who received significant interest from manufacturers at IMHX 2013. Hear their views on the market and its needs.

For more product launch news from IMHX 2013 go to: www.imhx.biz

RICHARD NOBLE

The show was opened

by Richard Noble OBE, Project Director of Bloodhound SSC, which aims to smash the world land speed record

ENDURO CHALLENGE

The team from Magdalen College School in Brackley, Northamptonshire, with their entry for BITA Academy’s Enduro Challenge and Bill Goodwin, Sales Director for Briggs Equipment

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13 IN PICTURES IMHX13: PRODUCT LIFTOFF

COMPETITIVE EDGE

The heats of the RTITB Operator of the Year Competition took place at IMHX 2013

A wealth of brand-new products were launched at the show including a wide range of forklift trucks.

The show of innovation reflects a vibrant sector whose solutions are in high demand

IMHX2013: MORE THAN JUST A TRADE SHOW Exhibitors at IMHX 2013 invested in impressive stands and entertainment.

Feedback says the returns will make it all worthwhile as industry customers seek to find competitive advantage through their supply chain and logistics operations

IMHX13: A RECORD BREAKER

IMHX 2013 attracted record numbers of visitors (19,526) and exhibitors (412)

WINNING BUSINESS

JBT Corporation supplied a fleet of seven AGVs to juice manufacturer, Tropicana, at its distribution centre in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA

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From the exhibition floor

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he Manufacturer spoke to a number of exhibitors at IMHX 2013 about their products and what they have to offer for industrial businesses.

FLEXI NARROW ISLE

The Flexi range of articulated forklift trucks has been developed specifically to improve storage, handling and customer order assembly efficiency in manufacturing and logistics.

Peter Wooldridge, MD, Flexi Narrow Isle says: “Close to twenty per cent of our business comes from manufacturing and our product really comes into play where there are certain space restrictions a manufacturer may wish to condense a storage area.

“For our product it is all about the accommodation of space. If you can take wasted space and turn it into an area where you can actually make products, you gain efficiency in the use of your facility.

“We’ve seen our European market grow in the last two years by about 50%.

We have a family of products including high-bay warehousing applications up to 14 metres right down to low-bay which would The Flexi range of articulated fork lift trucks are made for perfect for be down to narrow isle storage areas five metres.”

REDIGROUP

Originally primarily a pallet racking supplier, over the last decade, Redigroup has increased its product portfolio to include complimentary offerings such as automation systems, fit-outs, flooring and furniture.

“Recently we’ve been fortunate enough to gain a grant from the Regional Development Fund. With the assistance of that funding we are building an innovation centre because we are moving more into automated warehousing and storage and retrieval.

“We have just completed a unique project in Liverpool for an ice cream manufacturer. We were able to put 13,500 pallets into our automated solution when a natural normal racking layout would only achieve something like 7,500 pallets. To achieve the pallet storage capacity we achieved, they would have needed to build another cold storage unit to accommodate it. As a result the manufacturer commented that the investment in our RediGroup is primarily a pallet product paid for itself on racking supplier day one.”

PLASTIC EXTRUDERS

Plastic Extruders provides plastic strapping, matting and thermoplastic profile extrusions.

The company’s Plastex vinyl matting and flooring is designed for a wide range of uses including entrance flooring and will meet the demands of heavy industrial environments.

“In the industrial sector we’ve had quite a lot of interest in our anti-fatigue matting. These enquiries have come mainly from manufacturing companies where there is standing working, often on concrete floors which can be slippery and dusty. We put matting down to stop people tripping or slipping and reduce fatigue.

“Our product is manufactured in Wickford in Essex and we export to fifty eight countries in regions such as Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

“Front Runner SB (and SB Plus) is one of our newer products. It is a loose-lay entrance matting system which can be used between factory areas and offices to keep the dirt going through from the factory into the offices as well as on the entry doors going Plastic Extrusions Plastex stand at IMHX into offices.”

JBT CORPORATION

JBT Corporation is a provider of Automatic Guided Vehicle (AGV) Systems for customers in a wide variety of industries including: automotive, chemicals/plastics, hospital, newsprint/newspaper, commercial print, paper, food & beverage, pharmaceutical, and warehousing and distribution.

“We are a global supplier of automatic guided vehicle systems. AGVs are used in the manufacturing sector to deliver raw materials or parts to an assembly line and also to connect different manufacturing cells to move work in process. Then at the end of the manufacturing process we can store and retrieve finished goods.

“Companies are trying to reduce their costs as much as possible during the manufacturing process and that is something that an automated guided vehicle can do.

Companies are also looking to reduce damage to the product, and that can often be a huge selling point for an AGV system.

Where we have seen particular growth in activity is in the food and beverage Mark.Longacre, Marketing sector as well as in Manager, JBTC consumer products.”