At an event to celebrate the opening of two new terminals at DHL's Leipzig hub, the express operator was keen to show off what it claims is the world's first automated pallet handling system (see end of article for video).
The system is fairly similar to DHL's parcel and flyer system at the hub, but the shipments it handles are much bigger.
First ULDs are unloaded from aircraft and the pallets contained within are taken out by forklift and placed on a yellow tray on the pallet handler and scanned.
The pallet is then automatically whisked 12 m up onto the mezzanine floor where it is transferred to the correct area of the hub before heading back to ground level to be taken off the yellow tray and placed in a ULD waiting to be loaded on an aircraft heading to the shipment's final destination.
The system can handle shipments with a maximum weight of 170kg and measuring 2 m wide with a depth and height of 1 m each.
In total, the system can handle 5,000 pallets per hour and the trays travel at 2 m per second.
