Two Category Winners for the First Time: Jungheinrich and Wegard win IFOY AWARD

•  International jury of trade journalists select the Jungheinrich ECE 225 with easyPILOT Follow and Wegard Trail as winners in the IFOY category "Warehouse Truck".

• Dr. Jochen Köckler, Member of the Board at Deutsche Messe and Patrick Gojer, Global Director Perfect Charging at Fronius, present IFOY trophys.

• Glamorous IFOY Award Night at the CeMAT in Hanover.

Surprise at the IFOY Awards. For the first time in IFOY history, two vehicles may call themselves "Warehouse Truck of the Year". The improved ECE 225 incorporating easyPILOT Follow from Jungheinrich and the Wegard Trail from the Hamburg startup Wegard crossed the finish line on the same level. The cheering was overwhelming when the laudatory speakers revealed the traditionally well-kept secret of the winners at the CeMAT opening ceremony.

Warehouse Trucks of the Year

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The ECE 225 from Jungheinrich, equipped with the new easyPILOT Follow remote operating option, follows its operator automatically and precisely to the next pick point. This allows the user to concentrate fully on the picking process. The jury's decision was based on the innovative positioning system of the 2.5-ton order picker, the user interface with remote control and visual display of the vehicle function, which in this combination were rated as highly innovative by the IFOY Innovation Check. "Jungheinrich makes the transition to autonomisation easy with the automatic travel control system retrofittable for all ECE models," stated the jury.

In contrast to the manual remote control available since 2015, the easyPILOT Follow is far more comfortable and easy to operate. It is also possible to change sides in the aisle without any problems. The operator carries the control unit in a pocket or at the belt and the system automatically connects the remote control to the vehicle. Radio technology is used for a 100 percent secure connection independent of optical obstacles or other sources of interference between vehicle and operator. Two scanners at the front of the truck ensure safety, one of them is also responsible for navigation.

The IFOY Test proved the system to be extremely robust and reliable. The test data also confirmed the optimized picking performance by walking.

The second IFOY Award in the category "Warehouse Truck" goes to the Wegard Trail. The modular tugger train of the Hamburg-based Wegard startup is the first to use autonomously electronically steered axles with angle detection.

"With its new axle, Wegard consistently solves the problem of directional stability of tugger train trailers. For the first time, driving maneuvers such as lateral parking, shunting and reversing are possible, which are particularly important for the automation of tugger trains," the jury says. The IFOY Innovation Check confirms the system's significantly improved adaptability and flexibility compared to mechanical steering couplings.

The basis of the tugger train is the steering of the individual axles. It only uses sensor information that is measured directly on the axis. Three sensors are installed to determine the left and right wheel movement as well as the steering angle. An algorithm is used to calculate the exact position of the front and rear tiller points. The system uses these values to calculate the route to be driven. The accuracy was remarkable in the IFOY test series, as was the simple connection without data cable.

Thanks to this modular axle, no central control is required, which means that the system can be connected to all tractors and trailers with a transport capacity of up to 1,000 kilograms per trailer. The IFOY Award has established itself as an indicator of economic efficiency and innovation. Due to its specialised expertise it is regarded as the most important innovation award in intralogistics. The decision is based on the IFOY audit. The devices and solutions are subjected to individually tailored driving or function tests, including the IFOY test protocol comprising around 80 criteria and the scientific IFOY Innovation Check. In addition, jurors and their advisory teams assess the finalists personally before voting. Above all, it is crucial that the nominees are compared not with each other, yet with their competing devices on the market.

The IFOY Award, which is sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, is presented by the Association for Materials Handling and Intralogistics within the VDMA. IFOY partners are CeMAT, the world's leading trade fair for intralogistics, Hanover, and Messe München with its trade fairs transport logistic, bauma and IFAT. Pallet partner of the IFOY Award is Chep, world market leader in the pooling of pallets and containers. The technology partner is battery charging specialist Fronius