About the brewery De Halve Maan

In the heart of Bruges lies Brewery De Halve Maan, home to beer brands such as Brugse Zot, Straffe Hendrik and Blanche de Bruges. This is the story of a Bruges brewing family that has always believed in authentic Bruges beer. Like Mabo E&A, De Halve Maan is a family business. De Halve Maan is one of the fastest-growing breweries in the country. And growing also means expanding.

Background

With the need for expansion, the new bottling plant came up. Traditionally, a lot of manual transport is provided here with counterbalance forklifts. However, Brewery De Halve Maan saw an opportunity to automate some of these processes to use labour elsewhere, reduce user errors and improve safety. The process involved bringing full pallets coming from the bottling plant to a fermentation area and, after the necessary time, moving them to an outbound zone.

However, there were some challenges, especially in how the pallets were stacked. To save space, the pallets are stored in a block stacking structure where the pallets were placed three high on top of each other in the hot fermentation room.

Solution

Mabo E&A came up with a solution to this challenge. The Mabo CB1555 is the ideal solution for all block-stacking challenges. This AGV can block stack pallets up to 5.5m high.

In the block stacking zone, it is impossible to navigate on laser navigation with reflectors as the AGV is completely enclosed. Therefore, our Mabo CB is equipped with SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping) navigation; thus, the AGV can navigate itself based on its surroundings. This way, the AGV can navigate itself flawlessly both in and out of block stacking. In addition, the MABO algorithm determines where palettes should be placed based on where the previous palettes were placed or removed. In this way, space can always be used efficiently.

Results

The Mabo CB allows Brouwerij De Halve Maan to continue saving space by succeeding in a block-stacking system. In addition, safety is greatly enhanced, labour costs are reduced and the number of human errors in this process is greatly reduced.

Thanks to this unburdening, customers can focus on their core business: brewing beer! That’s what Mabo E&A is all about, showing the customer opportunities and allowing them to focus on their core business.

Brewery De Halve Maan also asked for a personalised design of their vehicles which of course makes it a great addition to their bottling plant. Welcome to the Craziest and the Strongest Robots!

Conclusion

Brewery De Halve Maan had challenges regarding their intra-logistics. Mabo E&A brought the right expertise and advice to automate their process. It not only improved the efficiency and safety of the facility but also had a positive impact on the production process and the quality of the final product.

This solution demonstrates the power of AGV technology to transform the traditional production process into a more automated and productive one.