Special Feature 2
Drawing on our extensive experience and continuing to innovate by applying existing technologies
Customer Needs Are the Starting Point
One of Daifuku’s strengths is its capability to develop and offer the best comprehensive systems to meet customer requests. These requests include the environment where the distribution point is located, special features of items to be handled, the frequency of shipments, and the budget for investment in the systems. To respond to today’s growing attention to corporate social responsibility, Daifuku also proceeds to develop products and systems that give due regard to safety and the natural environment.
Responding to Changes in the Industrial Structure
Daifuku is continuing to innovate by improving and combining its accumulated expertise and technologies and applying these to new industrial fields. In the 1980s when demand for semiconductors rose sharply, Daifuku developed overhead monorail systems for semiconductor cleanroom factories, an upgrade from the “Telelift,” which was used for transporting medical records in hospitals and books in libraries. In addition, Daifuku developed cleanroom storage systems for flat-panel display factories, using its conventional automated warehouse system technologies, to meet increased demand in the 2000s. Also, as the economy and society change, Daifuku’s developments for newly emerging industries have been highly appraised. These include systems for convenience store chains, agricultural produce shipments, pharmaceutical wholesalers, 100-yen (or US$1) stores, and e-commerce or online stores.
Daifuku’s High-Rise Research Facility: Solving Problems on High-Rise Construction
High-rise research facility at the Shiga Works
The high-rise research facility, which tests 40m high automated warehouse stacker cranes, has developed a sway-control technology.
For more storage quantity in limited spaces, taller warehouses are needed. But, as these structures increase in height, sway of the upper part of cranes increases, and items cannot be stored and retrieved until sway subsides. This has an impact on the cycle time.
Amid increased demand for larger and higher-throughput automated warehouse systems for large distribution centers, Daifuku’s own sway-control technology solves these problems. Since this technology can also be applied in Europe and the U.S., where restrictions on the height of these structures are less strict than in Japan, the work of the high-rise research facility is becoming increasingly important.
