Company History – SHT GmbH.

Established under a contract dated 18 August 2004, “SHT GmbH” initially took over the business activities of the individual company “Berghammer Industrieausstattungen”. This company already had extensive know-how in the manufacture of steel and special machinery and in industrial removals.

In the years which followed, the company increasingly focussed on developing and manufacturing special machinery to improve workplace ergonomics as well as devices to separate production and material flow. Such devices are now used in many plants of the automotive industry and of their suppliers and have been regularly exhibited at LogiMAT in Stuttgart, the leading trade fair for the logistics sector, since 2006.

In 2008, SHT developed a totally new type of tugger train system, the “LiftRunner”, in collaboration with the BMW plant in Regensburg. As a result of the resounding market success, the entire tugger train systems division was hived off into “LR Intralogistik GmbH” in 2010. In February 2010, this company concluded an exclusive contract with the Hamburg-based company “STILL GmbH”. Since then, these products have been marketed via STILL’s global organisation and enjoy technological and market leadership within Europe.

Prototype construction remained at SHT, as did all aspects relating to the actual flow of materials in companies which operate a lean production system or are planning such a system. For example, a device was developed for the simple and precise movement of trolleys containing large loads, as were a compact automatic storage area for empty trolleys and a device for optimised switching of containers at assembly stations, to name but a few.

At the same time, automation became increasingly important. Among other things, this resulted in a development contract from “LR Intralogistik GmbH” to upgrade its tugger trains for unmanned loading and offloading operations. Another area of interest is the automatic loading of trolleys without the use of fork-lifts. Here, SHT has devised and implemented numerous solutions for a wide variety of applications.

In 2014, the company took over the business activities of “SORT + STORE GmbH”, and thus entered the field of port logistics. The container handling equipment manufactured by this company has been used in major sea ports around the globe for about 20 years and enjoys an excellent reputation.

In the same year, SHT GmbH entered into cooperation with “CargoBeamer AG” of Leipzig. This company develops and operates a revolutionary system for moving shipments from road to rail. Focusing on the special requirements of OEMS, the two companies collaborated to develop a large-capacity transport container including automated loading and offloading infrastructure. The joint venture received impressive confirmation that it was on the right track when its system (CBoXX) was voted one of VW’s 10 best “nominated suppliers” from among hundreds of applicants at the group’s “Innovative Logistics Solution Day 2015”.

Thanks to the application-specific know-how acquired by SHT’s engineers in contact with its customers in the field of intralogistics, the company is now increasingly being asked to provide consultancy services. SHT’s specialists offer services ranging from solving detailed problems to designing the complete intralogistics flow of goods.

Drawing on its own know-how and following company acquisitions and the establishment of joint ventures, SHT today covers a broad field within the logistics sector. From handling a 40 ft container to small load carriers, the company’s engineers are aware of the respective specific issues and are thus able to provide customers with optimised processes and also identify the most suitable machines and devices or, where necessary, develop and produce them themselves, optimised to the individual application.