Movu atlas for cold store
At −13°F, every cubic inch is space you pay to freeze.
In a cold store, space, energy and people are your biggest costs. Every forklift aisle is cooled around the clock, and every pallet moved by hand means someone working in the freezer.
Movu atlas eliminates forklift aisles entirely, with dense storage lanes worked by 4-way shuttles. More product, less empty space. You fit more pallets into the space you already cool, use less energy per pallet, and keep storage and retrieval running 24/7 at −13°F.
Configure your cold store
Benefits of a Movu atlas system
Five problems every cold store runs into. Five reasons operators switch to Movu atlas.
Every cubic inch you cool should hold product.
The challenge
Energy is around 15% of a European cold store's total costs, and you pay it for every cubic inch you keep cold. Forklift aisles, and the long straight aisles stacker cranes need, take up refrigerated space that stores nothing.
What Movu atlas does
It stores big batches of the same product in deep lanes, several pallets deep, and serves them with shuttles instead of forklift aisles. It builds high on a small footprint and follows the shape of your building, even an irregular one, in an existing site or a new build.
Up to 100%
more pallet positions on the same footprint. One Clarebout warehouse went from 3,000 to 6,000 pallets.
A stacker crane can weigh 16.54 US short tons. Every pallet it moves means moving all of that too.
The challenge
The cooling never switches off, and the machines that move pallets add to that energy load with every trip.
What Movu atlas does
A Movu atlas shuttle weighs around 660 pounds. A stacker crane can weigh up to 16.54 US short tons. Moving less weight takes less power: 73 to 82% less energy than a stacker crane for the same pallet movement. Denser storage also means less energy per pallet stored.
5x
less energy than a traditional stacker crane
A refrigerated dock is the most expensive place to park a pallet.
The challenge
In most warehouses, a truckload is pulled out hours early and staged on the dock. In a freezer, that dock has to be kept cold, and every time a door opens, humid air rushes in, ice builds up and cold escapes.
What Movu atlas does
Loads wait inside the system until the last minute. When the truck docks, conveyors push the load straight out, just in time and in sequence, so the dock area can stay chilled or ambient instead of frozen.
600/h
pallets out of Clarebout's Movu atlas system across 12 loading bays, with every truck loaded within the hour
Your flows will change. Your system should change with them.
The challenge
Much of the frozen food chain runs through 3PLs, where volumes shift with every client and every season. Few operators can say what throughput they will need in five years.
What Movu atlas does
Throughput scales up or down by adding or removing shuttles, and storage grows by extending the racking, while the store keeps running.
Within a day
to take a shuttle out and replace it at Westhof BIO, while the WMS sends pallets to other levels
Fewer people working long shifts at −13°F.
The challenge
Labor is the biggest single cost in a refrigerated warehouse. In North America it makes up 40% of total expenses, according to the Global Cold Chain Alliance. Freezer work also means thermal clothing, warm-up breaks and staff rotation.
What Movu atlas does
Storage and retrieval run automatically, around the clock, so your team spends less time in the harshest part of the building and more on the work that needs them.
24/7
fully automatic storage and retrieval, down to −13°F
See it running in other people's freezers.
From deep-freeze 3PLs to frozen fries: Movu atlas systems at work today.
Seen enough to start the conversation?
“
Nothing gets picked until the truck is at the dock — that’s how fast and flexible a deep-freeze operation can be.”
Thomas Demuynck
CEO, Coldo
The Movu atlas Storage & Retrieval System
Five parts, one system. Here's what you'll want to know.
The shuttle gets most of the attention, but it only works as well as the racking it runs on, the lifts that feed it and the software that tells it where to go.
stow Group builds the racking. Movu builds the shuttles and the software. Both come out of the same stow Group supply chain in Europe and the US.
200+
Movu atlas systems in the market, most of them in 3PL, food and beverage, and cold storage.
Plan your freezer project
01 · RackingWill it fit my building?Yes. The racking is designed around your site, whether it's a new build (greenfield), an existing building (brownfield) or a rack-supported silo.
stow Group, number one in European racking, designs and builds the structure for every Movu atlas system, with production in Europe and the US. It's built for 4-way shuttles from the start, not adapted afterwards.
Unlike stacker cranes, which need long straight aisles, a shuttle system can follow the shape of your building. In a silo, the racking carries the roof and walls, so there's less empty space to insulate and keep cold.
At Coldo in Kuurne, Belgium, the racking carries a deep-freeze warehouse 150 feet high.
See the Coldo story
02 · AuxiliariesCan it keep up with my loading bays?Yes. Integrated lifts bring each pallet to the right level, and conveyors move pallets between the system and your dock.
Lifts and conveyors are the entry and exit points of the system, from goods-in and quality control through to dispatch. From there, the shuttles take over.
Chargers and maintenance stations are designed into the racking from the start, alongside the lifts and conveyors, which makes maintenance simpler once the system is running.
At Clarebout, the system serves 12 loading bays and sends out up to 600 pallets an hour.
See the Clarebout story
03 · 4-way shuttleWill it keep working at −13°F?Yes. Not all automation copes with the cold. Movu atlas is designed for cold storage from the start, with adapted battery and mechatronics designed to last.
Its double wheel set enables the Movu atlas to roam freely throughout the horizontal plane. Unloaded, it even drives underneath stored goods for most efficient routing.
At Westhof BIO near Hamburg, six shuttles serve six levels of a −11.2°F silo.
See the Westhof BIO story
04 · ApplicationCan it do more than deep storage only?Yes. The Movu atlas system can also replenish picking applications and serve as a dispatching buffer.
Its first job is storing pallets in bulk. But the roaming shuttles can also be used for replenishing source pallets and picking modules, whether those are manual, semi-automated or fully automated. Inside of the system, truckloads can be pre-staged so that the right product mix, whether that are full or picked pallets, gets prepared ahead of the truck's arrival. The system holds the shipment until the very last minute, then sends pallets out in loading order as the truck pulls in.
For frozen goods, that means outgoing loads wait inside the refrigerated warehouse instead of sitting at the dock. At Simplot trucks are loaded, in sequence, within minutes. Demand for temperature-controlled storage keeps growing in healthcare and pharmaceuticals, where compliance leaves no room for error.
At Westhof BIO, one system holds raw vegetables waiting for processing and finished packs waiting for customers.
See the Westhof BIO story
05 · SoftwareWill it work with my WMS?Yes, through a single interface. Movu software runs everything below your WMS, down to each shuttle's motors.
Movu ops takes orders from your WMS and organizes routing, conveyors, lifts and where each shuttle roams. Movu tower hands out missions, controls traffic and manages batteries. Movu pilot runs on each shuttle and handles onboard safety and motor control.
Every pallet movement is logged, so you know where stock is without sending anyone into the freezer to look. Before anything is built, the same software simulates and stress-tests your layout, and once it's live, analytics keep the system performing.
Every Movu atlas system in the market is controlled by Movu's own warehouse execution software.
Tell us about your cold store.
Leave your details and a cold store specialist will contact you to talk through your project. The more you tell us about your store, the more useful that first conversation will be.