It’s even safer with ELOshield for Mondi Ascania

It’s even safer with ELOshield for Mondi Ascania
Overcoming the challenges of trucks and pedestrians in close proximity

Any company that operates industrial vehicles in proximity to co-workers puts safety high on the agenda, which has always been the case at Mondi Ascania, a manufacturer of non-woven products for the hygiene, personal care and medical sectors. A year or so ago the company made the decision to reduce any risks of accidents even further by fitting ELOKON’s ELOshield assistance system on its fleet of Toyota forklift trucks.

At Mondi’s manufacturing facility in the German state of Saxony Anhalt, four 50m long production lines operate around the clock, with the fabrics coming off the conveyor belts on large bales. Whilst the production process is to a large extent automated, other operations such as taking the bales to the packaging and storage areas, preparation for despatch and quality management involve the use of forklifts and manual labour.

The Project at a glance

70.000 qm

Size of the central warehouse

4 Halls

A lot of personnel traffic

50 meters

of production lines

Little space

Many areas of the hall are difficult to see

The background
Excellent safety track record

There has not yet been a single serious accident involving collisions between personnel and vehicles on site, thanks to Mondi’s stringent implementation of occupational health and safety measures. The forklifts circulate mainly in a relatively confined area of just 300m² between the packing stations, so there is little room to manoeuvre. Add to this very limited visibility and a constant stream of pedestrian traffic between the halls and this makes for a challenging environment for the truck drivers.

Maik Roemhold, SHE Coordinator at Mondi said: “We are proud of our excellent track record so far, but we were aware that unless we constantly review and enhance our safety measures it was possibly only a matter of time before an accident occurred when 25 trucks and 120 employees are working closely together. This is why we commissioned a demo of ELOshield on-site, which proved that the system’s ability to send visual, acoustic and haptic warning signals would add an extra layer of safety for our workforce.”

The solution
Radio technology protects the workforce

ELOshield automatically recognises when a person enters the danger zone of an operating forklift truck, by means of two modules which communicate with each other via radio signals. The forklift module is installed in a clearly visible position in the driver’s cab whilst the personal module, around the size of a smartphone, is worn by the pedestrian.

Constant transmission of radio signals measures the distance between the two modules in real time, and if this falls below a certain threshold the system triggers alarms. The driver receives visual and acoustic notification that a person is within the danger zone of the vehicle and the pedestrian is alerted by means of vibration and acoustic alarms, which also coincide with the truck being automatically brought to a standstill.

Happy employees, satisfied management

“Our employees really like this system”, said Roemhold. “They feel safe and protected when they move around the production lines. Initially some of them had to get used to the trucks slowing down automatically and thought that this could impact on productivity, but this was just perceived, and our analyses proved that this was not the case at all. Installation went very smoothly and the ELOKON technicians were quick to react with solutions to any feedback we had, such as slightly repositioning the antennas to improve the trucks’ steering.”

The challenge

Compatible with all OEM products

ELOshield was installed on a number of the Toyota models, and going forward Mondi plans to fit all its new trucks with this system. In common with all of ELOKON’s safety and assistance systems, it is  compatible with any forklift brand as the radio signals can be adapted to be received by any truck, and it can also be retrofitted to existing fleets.

About Mondi Ascania

Mondi Ascania manufactures high-quality non-woven materials that are mainly used for household, hygiene and medical articles. Ascania products are used, for example, in nappies, wet wipes, hospital supplies and disposable materials.

Mondi Ascania

More information:

Find out more about ELOshield

Product page

Do you need further information about ELOshield?

We will be pleased to send you further information about our proximity detection system.

Click here for more info

Product brochure

ELOshield Flyer (pdf)

Download

Send us a message:

What is the sum of 3 and 6?

More solutions to improve safety in intralogistics