January 2022

40 n GEARS AND GEARBOXES January 2022 www.drivesncontrols.com Gears play a vital role in Swiss ‘dark warehouse’ project A four-year Swiss-led collaborative project kicked off earlier this year with the aim of designing and developing sustainable warehouses incorporating technologies that will allow them to operate autonomously, without human intervention, for up to two days. The Intelligent Dark Warehouse project is being led by the Swiss logistics association VNL and brings together organisations from four countries – including ABB and Ikea. The goal is to create a fully automated warehouse in which all processes can operate autonomously, from the delivery and storage of goods, to order-picking, packaging and eventual despatch. Increased costs and scheduling pressures, staff shortages and the e-commerce boom are together forcing the logistics industry to shift towards more efficient technologies. Robots, AGVs (automated guided vehicles) and automated handling systems are now common in modern warehouses, but fully automated logistics facilities are still a pipedream. Complex needs “The dark warehouse has very complex requirements for the technologies used in the project,” explains Jürg Fürst, managing director of Balance Drive, a Swiss drives specialist which is taking part in the venture. “It requires intelligent, flexible systems that integrate numerous different processes and motion sequences, and autonomously adapt to changing situations. “Standard solutions would not offer especially good prospects for success, due to the specific nature of the challenges,” he adds. “What is needed are new ideas, innovative approaches and creative concepts.” Gearboxes will play a key role in this process. This is why the world’s largest manufacturer of cycloidal gears, Nabtesco Precision Europe, is another participant in the Swiss project. “As torque and speed converters, gearboxes are a central element in the drivetrain and have a substantial effect on the performance and efficiency of automation systems”, explains Daniel Obladen, Nabtesco’s head of sales for general industries. Cycloidal gears allow fast, precise positioning of large loads with almost no backlash, allowing pinpoint positioning of assemblies, workpieces and tools. The high-power-density mechanical components are claimed to be more precise, dynamic and rigid than alternative technologies such as rotary indexers, worm gears or planetary gears. These qualities make cycloidal gears particularly attractive for precision applications. Nabtesco claims to have captured 60% of robotics gears market, for example. Its cycloidal gears are also already widely used in warehouses and factories as key components in automated guided vehicles and other machines. n A multinational Swiss-led project is developing technologies that will needed for future warehouses that can operate autonomously without human intervention. A key technology will be the gearboxes needed to tackle complex drive challenges. The Swiss-led Intelligent Dark Warehouse project is using cycloidal gears to develop drives for warehouses of the future. These gears are already used in precision applications found in warehouses such as AGVs and robots.