Drive manufacturer Flender has officially completed construction work on the expansion of its site in Voerde, Germany, with the opening of its new logistics and storage hall for the assembly of large gear units.
The facility has been built on an open area on the company’s premises covering almost 8,000 square metres.
The new building is part of Flender’s investments to be able to handle the expected growth in the global wind energy business and to drive the energy transition in Europe.
In addition to large components for wind power gearboxes, the logistics hall also serves the industrial business of the global drive specialist.
The new building is part of a logistics concept that includes the lease of another hall with around 10,000 square metres directly next to the Flender site and was developed according to the standards of sustainable manufacturing.
Flender chief executive Andreas Evertz said: “With the new storage areas, we are making our logistics processes sustainable and thus reducing a considerable part of the previous transport routes and the associated CO2 emissions.
“Components that were previously stored de-centrally can now be stored centrally and made available for assembly more quickly with optimised transport routes.
“The energy for the large parts washing machine comes from district heating.
“Having short material routes, the gearbox parts can be transported directly from the truck to the large gear unit assembly via a roofed airlock. This means that the hall does not cool down and we save valuable energy.
“In addition, we will equip the entire roof of the new hall with photovoltaic modules.
“With measures like these, we have already been able to reduce our CO2 emissions by 79% in recent years and are getting closer step by step to our goal of operating on a completely CO2-neutral basis.”
Flender produces gearboxes and drive systems for the wind sector and the industrial business in Voerde.
For wind energy under the Winergy product brand, this also includes complete drive trains consisting of a gearbox and generator with very large and heavy components.
With 276,000 square metres of space and around 1,500 employees, it is the largest Flender site in Germany.