2021/2022, a new state-of-the-art production site was built at KETTLER headquarters. This includes a new administration building and a fully automated high-bay warehouse, which offers space for up to 50,000 e-bikes. The warehouse has a storage volume of 107,000 m³, at 30 m high and almost 100 m long. The e-bikes, equipped with lithium-ion batteries and fully assembled, are packed in cardboard boxes and stored in prefabricated compartments. Special storage and retrieval machines can store or retrieve up to eight e-bikes in one rack space.
KETTLER Alu-Rad produces tens of thousands of bicycles and e-bikes annually at its German site in Saarland. A production volume of up to 130,000 per year is planned at the new site. For over 40 years, bicycles and now e-bikes have been manufactured by hand. Only after comprehensive quality control the bikes are delivered to specialist retail partners.
Tested protection concept thanks to customer-specific fire tests
The protection concept consists of the OxyReduct® oxygen reduction system for active fire prevention and early fire detection using TITANUS® aspirating smoke detectors. In addition, organizational and accompanying measures are taken. The heat generated in the event of a lithium-ion battery igniting is dissipated via defined openings in the packaging of the e-bike. For this purpose, the packaging was adapted accordingly in coordination with the customer and VdS. This is also part of the fire protection solution developed by WAGNER.
The oxygen reduction system OxyReduct® reduces the oxygen level in the protected area of the high-bay warehouse to a protection level determined by fire tests. The system maintains this protection level continuously, so that the development or spread of a fire is prevented. The automated warehouse can still be accessed by people, taking DGUV requirements into account.
In order to detect smoldering fires and cable fires, which are still possible even in an oxygen-reduced atmosphere, in good time, we combine our fire prevention system with TITANUS® aspirating smoke detectors for fire detection. This fire detection systems continuously takes air samples from the ambient air and examines them for smoke particles. Due to the active sampling, our aspirating smoke detectors detect a fire development very early. Appropriate countermeasures can thus be initiated at an early stage.
Together with VdS, WAGNER has developed a customer-specific protection concept including the necessary fire tests. These were carried out at the DMT test laboratory for fire protection, a DIN EN ISO 9001 certified and DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accredited testing laboratory for fire tests.
Press Spokesperson of KETTLER Alu-Rad
We needed a holistic fire protection solution for both the high-bay warehouse and the battery warehouse, where the unassembled lithium-ion batteries are stored. Pioneering work was required here, because suitable protection concepts from other bicycle or battery manufacturers did not exist and still do not exist. Based on many years of experience in plant engineering, WAGNER developed a completely individual, safe solution for us.
