Crown has projected its new battery-powered work-assist vehicle Wave as one that speeds up picking procedures and eradicates or reduces the risk of falls from a height.

The company said one of the machines deployed at the Gillingham (England) warehouse complex of dental group Henry Schlein allowed up to 10,000 product lines to be picked in comfort and safety every day of the week without any need for the staff to physically transport heavy parcels from one point to another or up and down ladders.

"For added operational safety, the design of the Wave is such that an automatic cutout device prevents operation over a height of 0.5m should the safety gates not be fully closed," said Crown. "Likewise, it will not operate in travel mode without the operator having both feet on the pedals and both hands on the steering handles."

Apart from the safety advantages afforded by the Wave, its top travel speed of 6km/hr also enables picking duties to be carried out much faster than compared with using step ladders, Crown said. "Whereas, operators previously had to go and find a step ladder, then climb up it to extract the goods, and then transport them individually back down to ground level, with the Wave it's now straight up and down in just one movement. Its integral (125kg capacity) load-carrying deck also allows us to transport goods and the load tray (additional 90 kg capacity) to multi-pick goods from each and any location without any need for the operator to get off the machine, or even lower the working platform," it quoted an official of the medical products company as saying.

"As a result, we can now replenish the forward pick faces from the bulk store in as little as 10 minutes, and that is a major time saving. What is more, because of its 2m-plus lift height, one person can now pick to heights of around 4m. Previously, using ladders, valuable time would often be lost having to wait for a forklift truck to extract heavy goods out of the second storage level and then lower them to the ground to allow the picking function to take place."

In addition to its main function of extracting goods from secondary locations in order to replenish the forward pick faces, the Wave is also used for the put-away of incoming stock into their first- and second-level locations in the bulk storage complex.

Capable of operating for a full 12 hours on a single battery charge - and complete with its own on-board battery charger - the Wave also performs another important function, that of allowing maintenance staff to easily and effortlessly change light bulbs in the adjoining ground-floor offices.