July 7th, 2008

From blacksmith to factory

By Annemiek Meijer, photography Henk Benting,
translation: Apollo VTS B.V.

Started approximately one and a half century ago as a blacksmith’s shop in Nijkerk, Apollo VTS (Vertical Transport Systems) meanwhile developed into a large company with customers all over the world. The factory in Coevorden manufactures all kind of transport systems, totally adapted to the wishes of customers.

“If space is an issue. That is our company parole”, says CEO of Apollo VTS,  Jack van den Pol (57). “With this parole we link our company name with space travelling, but even more we point out that the available floor space at  our customers is an important issue for development of our products.”

Saving space
Apollo VTS takes care of that in an efficient way, according to Van den Pol.
Transport systems that are attached to the ceiling, are delivered to customers. “The spiral conveyor is an example of vertical transport”, explains Van den Pol.

“The product is first transported upward by a conveyor, then horizontally alongside the ceiling of a factory. Free space on the factory floor is the big advantage of this, this space can be used for other activities, such as transport of products by forklifts or warehousing. Our customer in this way saves substantial space.”

The spiral conveyor is one of Apollo’s specialties. But there is more. The company also manufactures pallet handling equipment. “Our customers are scattered all over the world. For example, our machines are placed by the New York Times and the Washington Post, but also by newspapers in Dresden and Paris.”

All our products are adjusted to the wishes of our customers. “A manufacturer of cosmetics in France has fifteen different Apollo machines in fifteen different colours to clearly indicate each line.”
According to Van den Pol, the Apollo transport systems are ideal to reduce working disabilities. “For example the coffee industry; in many countries employees have to load bags of eighty kilo’s manually in containers. Over here we developed a system that transports these bags directly out of the container, without any manpower.”

From blacksmith to factory
It all started in Nijkerk 161 years ago in the blacksmith’s shop of Van den Pol’s  great-great-grandfather. In 1935 Van den Pol’s grandfather made up the name Apollo, which is assumed to be a composition of his fore- and surname: Aart van den Pol.

During that time, business was expanding. The agriculture industrialization gradually took off and Apollo became more and more engaged in developing and manufacturing machines.

“After my grandfather died in 1947, my dad and two of my uncles took over. In the meantime it became necessary to expand. Because the company was situated in the village centre of Nijkerk, expanding there was not possible. Coevorden wanted to obtain more industry and had several possibilities. In Emmen, nearby Coevorden, a similar company just closed which resulted in availability of skilled persons who could start immediately at our company.”         

The company situated itself at the ‘Monierweg’, but moved to ‘Modem’ in 1999. Jack van den Pol is CEO since 2001 but does not feel superior to his employees.
“Everybody works hard to earn a good wage. We all have are own role and are equal.”

Customers and competitors
Seventy percent of our customers are foreign. As showing the leaflets in different languages, Van den Pol tells us that Apollo is exploring new countries, such as Russia and Turkey. “We are also focussing on Asia, where we attend some exhibitions.”

According to Van den Pol, Apollo has a lot of competitors. “It is essential to keep ahead of them, in which we are successful. Competition is a good thing, it keeps us keen. I don’t believe in absolute monopoly.
Why companies who have interest in transport systems should come to us? We do business in an honest way. We want customers to trust us and do not want to betray that trust. If there are any complaints or the customer is not quite satisfied, we will do our utmost to satisfy the customer. I always remind my employees that there is only one source of income: the customer. At the end of the day the customer is the one who pays their salary. The customer is always right.”

April 24, 2008
Spiral conveyor news: multi-level infeed and outfeed
Apollo VTS, leading supplier of spiral conveyors, launched a new shoot-in and shoot-out system at the Interpack 2008 which is held in Düsseldorf.

Ascending or descending products may enter as well as leave the spiral conveyor at almost every level in the windings.

As shown in the pictures, it is possible to enter the spiral conveyor from 2 or more levels.

A special engineered infeed belt will transfer the products smoothly from the existing line into the winding.

For shooting-out, Apollo VTS designed a pneumatic steered arm to turn and guide the products out of the spiral conveyor.

Again, a special fit outfeed belt will transfer the products on to an existing line.

Multiple tests have shown a multi levelled, smooth, continuous throughput of products. Several major system integrators are highly interested to implement this solution in their future projects.

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