inbound
In 2012, we reported on a project at
the Toyota Motor Manufacturing
Kentucky (TMMK) auto plant in
Georgetown, Ky., that involved
retrofitting 22 tow tractors with
locally built automation kits to
turn them into automated guided vehicles (AGVs). To develop these “home-grown” AGVs,
TMMK worked with two local
business partners—AutoGuide, an
automation specialist led by the
AGV innovator Paul J. Perry, and
Industrial Concepts Inc. (ICI), a
developer of custom machinery
and control systems. (AutoGuide
and ICI are closely allied; when we
visited, the two shared a facility,
and ICI’s executives had an ownership stake in AutoGuide.)
The low-cost automation kit
seemed like a sure winner, but ICI
and AutoGuide are small companies, and Toyota was keeping
them busy. Just as we were starting
to wonder whatever happened to
the folks in Georgetown, we got a
call from ICI to let us know that
the company had been acquired
by Michigan-based Heartland
Automation Solutions LLC. Now
renamed Heartland Automation,
it has also merged with its neighbor, AutoGuide LLC, which will
become a product division.
Heartland Automation
Solutions LLC also owns
Heartland Steel Products, which
includes the storage rack manufacturer SpaceRak, and Heartland
Engineered Products, a maker of
engineered platform and safety
products. No word yet on whether the new parent will invest in
expanding production and sales
of the “DIY” AGV kits.
Maker of “DIY
AGVs” gets a new
owner
France’s CMA CGM Group, the world’s third-larg-est containership operator, has come up with a
truly unique way to demonstrate the effectiveness
of refrigerated container transport. In early June
at the Château du clos de Vougeot, 420 bottles of
fine wines from Burgundy (with vintages from 2007 to
2010) were loaded into a refrigerated container that maintains the wine at a constant 15 degrees C ( 59 F) and sent on
their merry way.
After a three-month trip around the world via the Panama
and Suez canals, with stops in Australia, Southeast Asia, South
Asia, North Africa, and Europe, the wines arrived back in
France on Sept. 17.
The trip was organized by CMA CGM, the wine
and spirits producer JF Hillebrand, and the 300-year-
old Burgundian wine enthusiast group Confrérie des
Chevaliers du Tastevin (Brotherhood of the Knights of the Wine Cup).
The purpose: to promote the wines of Burgundy while demonstrating that
“container transport perfectly preserves wine’s aromas and flavors,” CMA
CGM says.
So how did the temperature-controlled voyage go? We’ll have to let you
know. Later this month, the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin will hold
a wine tasting, where members will compare the well-traveled bottles with
the same wines that were stored in a traditional wine cellar while their
counterparts sailed the seven seas.
This wine has (sea) legs!
In one of the more ironic twists of the nascent Natural Gas Vehicle Era,
a joint venture has been formed to provide natural gas fueling services to
bulk haulers of gasoline and diesel fuel.
Called Mansfield Clean Energy Partners (MCEP), the venture was created by Clean Energy Fuels and Mansfield Energy Corp., the latter being the
parent of Mansfield Oil Co., one of the nation’s largest bulk oil haulers.
Mansfield Oil is the venture’s first customer; starting in November, it will
have access to a compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling facility in Atlanta.
A second facility, in Tampa, Fla., will open in early 2015. Mansfield has
begun operating the first of 12 CNG-powered trucks it has acquired.
Patric Rayburn, a spokesman for Clean Energy, acknowledged the irony
of gasoline and diesel fuel transporters’ operating equipment fueled by
natural gas, a fuel that could one day supplant the traditional fossil fuels
as a primary source of transport energy. “It’s a sign of the times,” he said.
MCEP said it is in advanced discussions with several bulk fuel trucking
companies, representing potentially more than 100 new CNG-powered
trucks. Clean Energy is responsible for providing the fueling infrastructure
to support natural gas vehicle operations. Bulk fuel haulers consume more
than 3 billion gallons of fuel each year, according to a joint statement by
Clean Energy and Mansfield.
Transporting with the “enemy”
