The Customer

Beiersdorf Manufacturing Hamburg GmbH (BMH) is one of 150 subsidiaries of Beiersdorf AG. For over 130 years, this globally active, DAX-listed corporation—which now employs 17,000 people—has been dedicated to the development, production, and marketing of modern skin care products. Production takes place at the company’s largest facility. With approximately 600 employees at its two Hamburg plants, BMH is the Beiersdorf Group’s largest production site worldwide. About one-third of Beiersdorf’s global production of NIVEA, Labello, deodorants, aftershave, and other products is manufactured here.

Technical Specifications

• Euro pallet with cardboard box
• Maximum weight: 300 kg per pallet
• Capacity: up to 110 pallets per hour
• Multi-shift operation with monitoring by the control center

Function

The system is designed to fill raw material containers on Euro pallets from the high-bay warehouse into the downstream lift-and-tilt truck. The raw material containers hold NIVEA cans and lids of various designs. Depending on production requirements, the interface with the LVR and the production machine requests the pallet, which is then conveyed to the lift truck at the desired time. To achieve the required throughput, the second transfer cart has two pallet positions. This allows it to remove an empty pallet at the same time it is delivering a loaded pallet. The empty cartons are accumulated on a buffer section for manual removal before the pallet is stacked in a pallet stacker.

Design Details

Each pallet containing cardboard boxes is sealed with a reusable plastic lid. This lid is removed at one point using a vacuum gripper and restacked on top of the pallet. A transport cart then moves along a walkway inside the production building. When crossing the walkway, the path is secured by safety light curtains and indicator lights. The pallets are transferred to the lift truck via a custom-designed telescopic lifting platform, which places the pallet into the truck’s receiving mechanism.

Control

• Siemens Safety PLC S7 315F-2DP
• Various 12-inch color touch panels (Simatic MP377)
• On-site operation with system visualization
  Ethernet and Profibus communication modules
• Remote Maintenance Module