Hamburg, February 3, 2020 – Under the slogan “A History of the Future,” the Hamburg-based intralogistics company STILL is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Looking back: On February 1, 1920, Hans Still opens his repair shop for electric motors – it is the starting signal for a 100-year success story of inventiveness, customer focus and service orientation.
n the past 100 years, STILL has repeatedly demonstrated a keen eye for the current requirements and challenges of its customers, has shaped the industry with its innovative strength, and has courageously taken the path toward promising business fields.
The beginning and the breakthrough
Just a few years after its foundation as a repair workshop for electric motors, STILL presented its own products, such as the “Matador light station” at the Leipzig Trade Fair in 1924. The development and repair of electric motors, generators and transformers remains the focus of the business for many years. After the end of the war, STILL launches an innovative electric truck, the EK 2000, and thus achieves a breakthrough as a manufacturer of industrial trucks. This is followed by the first forklift truck from STILL. The introduction of the EGS 1000 electric forklift truck marks the beginning of a new era.
Innovative drive concepts and pioneers of e-mobility
STILL quickly makes a name for itself as a producer of innovative industrial trucks and as a pioneer in electric mobility. The electric forklift opens up new fields of application wherever zero emissions and energy efficiency have priority. The passion for efficient electric motors extends into the development of IC engine-powered forklifts. Right from the start, the drive concept of the IC engine-powered trucks has been diesel-electric, i.e. it uses hybrid technology: Here, the internal combustion engine drives a generator, which in turn generates electricity and thus powers the drive motor. Due to the low engine speed, low-fuel operation is thus possible.
Electric drive and electromobility are inextricably linked with STILL. The introduction of the first electric forklift in 1949 or the use of fuel cells and lithium-ion technology are just some of the milestones with which STILL has established itself as an innovative partner for successful electric-based intralogistics solutions. When the new RX 60-20/35 electric truck is launched in 2019, STILL is once again a pioneer: independent tests certify that the truck’s productivity exceeds that of all internal combustion engines ever tested in the same load capacity class. Never before has an electric truck emerged victorious from a direct performance duel.
Always thinking ahead – automatically
Inventiveness and the drive for ever better solutions for its customers remain the central driving force of STILL for decades. Convinced of the enormous added value for customers, STILL is driving automation solutions and assistance systems massively forward in the new millennium. The OptiSpeed vehicle control concept profitably combines both trends. It ensures the best possible travel speed at all times, depending on the lifting height, direction of travel and payload. The result is up to 20 percent higher throughput. With its efficiency mode, the intelligent Blue-Q autopilot enables energy costs to be reduced by up to 20 percent – without any noticeable loss of performance. The automation project at Kuraray Trosifol wins the coveted International Forklift Truck of the Year Award (IFOY Award) in the “Intralogistics Solutions” category in 2015. With a sophisticated material flow concept, semi-automated shuttle vehicles communicate with automated reach trucks in a channel warehouse for the first time in this project. Only one year later, STILL presents the world’s first autonomously operating order picker iGo neo CX 20 and is thus the first industrial truck manufacturer to use robotics in intralogistics in series production.
Customer and service orientation as a success factor
Quality, service and customer orientation were the maxims of the company founder Hans Still and are still among the most important pillars of the company today. The introduction of digital service portals, such as the web-based fleet management tool STILLReport or the web application STILL neXXt fleet, are just two examples of the innovative strength in the service area.
In recent years, STILL has also continuously expanded its range of consulting services. In an era of complex warehouse environments with networked vehicles, closely interlinked processes and the need for ever more efficient operations, STILL has recognized that companies need experts at their side more than ever to provide competent advice, expertly analyze warehouse processes and then optimize the warehouse infrastructure with a sense of proportion. This applies all the more to the rapidly increasing trend toward automation.
Innovations that shape the industry
Time and again, STILL demonstrates a keen sense of its customers’ needs and translates this knowledge into new products: The introduction of the first free-view mast in the seventies, for example, significantly increased the safety of the operator and the surrounding area. Another milestone is the introduction of the side battery change on the RX 20 and RX 60 electric truck models. STILL thus significantly improves the efficiency of the trucks and once again sets standards that are now standard in the industry.
