Hamburg, 1 March 2010 – Manufacturing operations are currently showing a clear trend when it comes to the practice of lean production: replenishment of assembly lines with production material by tugger trains. With immediate effect STILL is exclusively offering a complete tugger train system called “Liftrunner”. In a lean production environment these trains save time and space when providing parts to the workplace.
The CX-T or R 06 tractors tow the “Liftrunner” trains consisting of E and C frames that safely hold trolleys of various shapes and are easy to load and unload.

This system allows lean concepts with a Just In Time (JIT) or Just In Sequence (JIS) supply of material. With this, STILL supports its customers in implementing modern solutions for production and flow of material.

There are many advantages in using tugger trains to provide material:
Throughout the supply processes, pre-commissioned load carriers can be moved to defined points to allow supply on demand. The trend towards small load carriers is ideally reflected by this method of transportation.

A single operator can supply material to an area of production alone without a forklift truck or pallet truck. This means fewer trucks in the fleet with cost savings for investment, operation and staff. The transport by tugger train within production areas is faster and safer than transporting pallets by lift truck and handling time is reduced to a minimum.

Additional benefits are the simultaneous provision and removal of materials and empty load carriers, clearly defined transport routes without wasted empty journeys and a reduction of traffic in the production area.

Tugger trains from STILL – powerful and reliable
The user-friendly “Liftrunner”-system allows the trolleys to be pushed into the trailers at floor level.
A modular system of train elements allows individual adaptation to any in-house situation. The trailers are compatible with each other and a quick coupling mechanism enables safe connecting and disconnecting of the trailers to the train which can be up to five E frames or four C frames long.

The trailers carry quarter, semi or full pallets of various sizes up to a maximum of 2,000 x 1,200 mm or cage trolleys, rack trolleys etc.

For travelling the trolleys are raised hydraulically or pneumatically so that only the larger wheels of the “Liftrunner” trailers touch the floor. This reduces the noise and spares the wheels of the trolleys which cannot get caught anywhere and will therefore increase the service life. The trolleys are automatically locked by locking pins to prevent them from rolling sideways out of the trailer.

Depending on the tractor and the trailer load the trains can travel at speeds up to 15 km/h with excellent driving characteristics. The silent polyurethane rollers of each “liftrunner” exactly follow the track of the tractor even around the sharpest

bends (only approximately 2% deviation over the full length of the train). The turning radius of the standard version is only 3.9 meters.

At the destination the operator can simply pull the trolleys out of the train; an “ejector” activated by a foot lever compensates for the initial inertia of the trolley. The trains can be loaded or unloaded from the left or the right, because the couplings of the “Liftrunner” trailers allow loading into the train in both directions.
The full trolleys are rolled to the work places and exchanged for empties. This reduces the storage space required at the assembly line and the existing space can be better utilised, because space consuming racking is not necessary.

Strong tractors
The efficient R 06 or CX-T tractors respectively and the “Liftrunner” trailers form an intelligent unit for modern intralogistics concepts from STILL for the flow of material.

The CX-T is the perfect choice for internal transport with up to four tonnes of trailer load. It offers everything the driver could wish for: the high torque of the 3.0 kW motor allows fast acceleration even with heavily loaded trailers. Thanks to the vibration damping of the platform, the comfortable PU wheels and the good floor clearance of 70 mm, the driver can feel at ease even on uneven roadways. The compact and robust CX-T tractor is manoeuvrable and the coupling which is placed in direct view of the driver as well as the low access

height make shunting easy. Even on slopes the train uncompromisingly maintains all these characteristics – including stopping without rolling back.

The R 06 tractor is particularly suitable for outdoor operation with its towing capacity of up to six tonnes.