Retrofit warehouse with ASRS?

You are landlocked. Your SKU count has expanded by 30%, but your warehouse footprint hasn’t grown an inch. You are currently paying for off-site overflow storage and bleeding margin on shuttle trucks. The question isn’t whether you like automation; it’s whether you can afford to move your entire facility. Retrofitting an Automated Pallet Warehouse into your existing shell allows you to exploit vertical “air rights” you already own, doubling capacity without pouring a new foundation.

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The Brownfield Dilemma: Why Retrofit?

In the Food & Beverage and FMCG sectors, the “Honeycombing” effect in traditional floor stacking is a silent profit killer. You might technically have 5,000 pallet positions, but due to FIFO (First-In-First-Out) requirements and partial lot depletion, your effective utilization is likely hovering around 65-70%.

Furthermore, standard wide-aisle forklifts require 3.5 to 4 meters of aisle width to turn. In a 10,000 square meter facility, nearly 60% of your expensive industrial flooring is dedicated solely to forklift travel, not storage.

By retrofitting with a starack Automated Pallet Storage System, we compress those aisles to approximately 1.5 meters (the width of the load plus clearance). We replace the “human safety buffer” with precision engineering.

Figure 1: Converting wide forklift aisles into high-density vertical storage with starack-Standard systems.

Structural Logic: Q355 Steel vs. Dynamic Stress

A common concern in brownfield projects is the installation process disrupting ongoing operations. Unlike traditional welded racking which poses fire risks and requires long installation times, the starack system utilizes a Fully Bolted Structure made from Q355 High-Strength Steel.

The Engineering Logic:

The Double Mast Stacker Crane operates at heights up to 40 meters (if your existing roof allows, or if you opt for a roof-raise). At these heights, the dynamic forces of starting and stopping a 1,000kg pallet create significant torque. The Q355 steel provides the necessary tensile strength to resist the “whiplash effect,” ensuring the mast tip remains stable.

The Commercial Value:

Rigidity equals uptime. If a mast sways, the laser positioning system cannot verify the slot coordinates, causing the machine to fault out. Our rigid structure ensures that the High Bay Warehouse maintains ±3mm positioning accuracy, keeping your pallet throughput consistent even during peak shift changes.

Figure 2: Rigid Double Mast construction ensures stability for heavy loads, critical for minimizing faults in retrofit environments.

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Solving the Labor & Throughput Gap

In older facilities, the loading dock is often the bottleneck. You have product coming off the production line, but forklift drivers are delayed navigating congested aisles. This leads to pallets sitting in the staging area, risking cross-contamination or damage.

The starack system integrates directly with your production line via conveyor or AGV interfaces. The system executes a “handshake” with your WMS (Warehouse Management System).

S-Curve Acceleration: Our drives prevent liquid loads (beverages, chemicals) from sloshing during the 160m/min travel, preventing stack collapse inside the rack.
Lights-out Manufacturing: The system manages inventory reorganization (housekeeping) at night without human supervision, preparing high-demand SKUs for the morning dispatch wave.

Figure 3: Clean, efficient buffering of finished goods. The system enforces strict FIFO logic, eliminating expired stock losses.

Energy Efficiency in Retrofit Scenarios

If your facility involves temperature-controlled zones, retrofitting with a Heavy Duty ASRS or Shuttle system yields immediate OpEx reductions.

The Physics:

The lift motors on starack cranes are equipped with Regenerative Braking Units. When a 1,000kg pallet is lowered from 20 meters, gravity does the work. The motor acts as a generator, feeding energy back into the DC bus to power the horizontal travel.

For a cold storage warehouse, this reduces the heat load generated by equipment, lowering the burden on your refrigeration compressors. Furthermore, by increasing density, you are cooling product, not empty forklift aisles.

Figure 4: Vertical integration allows for multi-level production buffering, maximizing the utility of existing building height.

FAQ: Retrofitting Your Facility

Can ASRS be installed on my existing concrete slab?

Not usually directly. High Bay Warehouses impose point loads that exceed standard industrial slab ratings (often 3-5 tons/sqm). We typically cut the existing slab to pour a reinforced foundation strip or “raft” specifically under the racking footprint to handle the 30-meter high structural loads.

What is the minimum height required to make a retrofit viable?

While starack cranes can operate up to 40 meters, a retrofit is generally economically viable if you have at least 10-12 meters of clear height. Below this, the cost of automation hardware vs. the storage gain ratio diminishes, unless you are solving for extreme throughput or labor shortages rather than just density.

How do we handle production during installation?

We use a phased implementation approach. Since the ASRS uses a smaller footprint than floor stacking, we can often build the high-bay section in one area of the warehouse while you continue operations in the remaining space. Once commissioned, you transfer stock to the ASRS, freeing up the rest of the floor.

My product packaging varies (sacks, cartons, drums). Can ASRS handle it?

Direct handling requires standard pallets. If your pallets have overhang (bulging sacks) or are unstable, we utilize “slave pallets” or system bins to ensure a uniform base. Our Profile Gauge at the induction point ensures no deformed load enters the system, preventing jams inside the rack.

Is it cheaper to retrofit or build a Rack Clad building?

If you own the land, a Rack Clad Warehouse (where the rack supports the roof) is often 20-30% cheaper and faster than building a steel warehouse and filling it with racks. However, if you are stuck in an existing lease or building, a retrofit allows you to monetize your current OpEx/Rent without the CapEx of a new site.