Continental Saves Tens Thousands Euros with Autonomic Laser

Situation before
Continental Bandengroep b.v. (a part of Pon Holdings) holds an extensive production and storage location for storing tires and rims next to the A1 at Barneveld. During heavy rainfall, the rainwater is drained from the roof through the internal drainage; an emergency overflow system is also installed. Seagulls, oystercatcher and crows pollute the roof so much that the drainage becomes clogged causing the rainwater to penetrate the warehouse which leads to tens of thousands of Euros in damages.

Results after use
After the installation of the Agrilaser Autonomic, Continental’s 40 000 square meter roof looks as clean as ever. Since the installation, the rainwater drainage no longer becomes clogged and the company doesn’t suffer anymore water damages in the warehouse. ‘Where before we had to remove 200 liters of rubbish from the roof every week, we now only check sporadically.’

Company: Continental Bandengroep b.v.
Where: Barneveld, Netherlands
Product: Agrilaser Autonomic
Why: Drainage becomes clogged by pollution from birds
Since: November 2014

Results

The roof stays clean, because birds no longer settle there
• No clogged drainage
• Significantly less cleaning costs
• Laser operates automatically, no extra manpower required
• Tens of thousands of Euros saved

Interview Hans Verhoeven, Head of Department location Barneveld, ‘s-Heerenberg, Veenendaal

Birds dumping mountains of plastic and leftovers on the roof, causing the drainage to become clogged. Continental (a part of Pon Holding) was at a complete loss at what to do. The Agrilaser Autonomic has put an end to all this nuisance. An end to both bird and water trouble.

200 liters of rubbish every week
Continental’s production and storage location at Barneveld has a roof surface of approximately 40 000 square meters. Several companies in the meat processing industry and a sanitation plant are located nearby. ‘This of course creates a huge attraction to birds. Especially gulls, crows and oystercatchers like to settle on our roof. They bring a lot of rubbish with them, from plastic to leftover food. Every single week, we can remove 200 liters of garbage from the roof. If not, that will all stay behind combined with feathers and bird droppings. This then ends up into the rainwater drainage.’ Because of this rubbish, the drainage becomes clogged regularly and water enters the warehouse. This costs tens of thousands of Euros per incident. In 2014, Continental suffered water damages no less than three times.

Great urgency
‘We really were at a loss at the umpteenth flooding. Every time, it’s a huge loss’, explains Verhoeven.

Even during holidays, Continental’s employees were on the lookout for instruments and methods being used abroad for deterring birds. That’s how big of an impact this nuisance had on the company.
More or less by accident, Verhoeven heard about the laser solution from Bird Control Group and suggested ordering an Agrilaser Handheld against bird nuisance. ‘I did have to convince some skeptics, but because of the great urgency I succeeded’, says Verhoeven.

From Handheld to Autonomic
Even the skeptics couldn’t argue with the results of the Handheld. ‘Immediately, the results were obvious. The only disadvantage was that we constantly had to send somebody onto the roof. I heard they were working on developing an automated version. As soon as that one was ready, we ordered it immediately.’ This device assures Continental of astonishing results. ‘The entire roof is simply clean, except for that one little corner the laser can’t reach. Every now and then we check the roof but we never find anymore rubbish’, says a relieved Verhoeven. An additional result is that Pon saves huge cleaning costs. ‘But the most important thing is that we no longer have water damages in our warehouse. In preventing only a single incident, we’ve recouped more than the price of the laser.’