Whew, what a week! We’re still glowing from the amazing feedback we got on our 19.2 kW 400 A wireless Lift Truck charger… and from our booth 🙂 If you weren’t able to stop by, reach out for all the details or to get on our waitlist for pilot units!
As we heard during Wednesday’s Industry Night event, this year’s ProMat was the biggest ever, with more than 50,000 attendees all looking for the next best thing. Read on for some of the highlights or send us a comment to let us know what you thought.
ProMat 2023 Highlights
Automation
Automation and robotics have been hot topics in recent years, and this year was no different with autonomous forklifts – Bastion Solutions’ CB18 AGF appeared to be the newest – seemingly everywhere on the show floor. Companies showed up with innovative solutions to some of the most pressing challenges the materials handling industry faces, and labor shortage and retention struggles were top of mind. This year’s ProMat featured back to back talks in the Robotics & Automation Theater, a focus on Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) in addition to automated products like AMRs and AGVs, and huge booths dedicated to automation, from AutoStore’s impressive ASRS to Locus Robotics’ multi-bot solution. In fact, there was so much focus on robotics and automation this year that it was no surprise the MHI Innovation Award winners in Best New Product and Best Innovation of an Existing Product were Agility Robotics (for Digit, the human robot) and HAI Robotics, respectively.
Charging and Energy Solutions
While ProMat’s focus was heavy on automation this year, the majority of attendees talked about their need to improve manual processes today as they transition to a fully autonomous future, chief of which was their fleet charging and energy capabilities. There was no better product to meet this need than Resonant Link’s 400 A, 19.2 kW wireless Lift Truck charger, which got rave reviews for its impressive 10” air gap and 12” of total misalignment, high power capabilities, and ability to work with any battery chemistry and truck type. Logistics leaders are looking for flexible solutions that can be both retrofitted and fully integrated into greenfield planning, and with the ability to get our wireless chargers in weeks rather than years, they were lining up to discuss pilots.
Battery makers also told us they had a banner show, with attendees looking for the best way to not only power their fleet, but transition from energy consumers to energy providers. Fast, flexible wireless charging and next generation battery technologies are uniquely suited to enable this transition and it was refreshing to hear so many 3PLs, retailers, dealers, and others asking when and how to make it happen.
Enhanced Data Connectivity
Enhanced data connectivity and smart technologies are essential to fully realize the benefits of automation, energy storage solutions, and the next generation of warehouse operations, from inventory management and forecasting to product tracking and fulfillment. This year brought a slew of new solutions to help fleets work smarter, from well known and better-than-ever platforms like Raymond’s iWAREHOUSE suite of connected technologies to ProMat first-time attendee solutions focusing on niche capabilities like MHI’s 2023 StartUp Award winner sSy.ai, which takes data harvesting and asset tracking to the next level. Continued digitization and real-time connectivity are essential for warehouses to operate at peak efficiency and it was exciting to see the continued focus in this area.
Talent and Transformation
We were blown away by our customers and partners, old friends and new friends, who shared their vision for the future of logistics. It’s an exciting time to be in the material handling industry and change was in the air. If we took one thing away from ProMat, it's that a lot is going to happen between now and MODEX 2024.
If you want to add onto this list or share your vision for what happens after what happens next, reach out. We spent so much time in our booth and meeting with customers that we’re sure we missed a lot of what happened over the four days of ProMat!
