Wire Spool Carousel for Electronics Manufacturing: BTECH Inc, Rockaway, New Jersey
How an American electronics manufacturer moved its wire and cable spool inventory into one 10-foot motorized wire carousel on the production floor.
Customer
BTECH Inc
Location
10 Astro Place, Rockaway, NJ 07866 (Morris County)
Product
Vidir Wire Carousel, Model W39123-0734-06 — 7 carriers, 21 wire bays
Application
Motorized vertical storage of wire and cable spools for electronics manufacturing
About the project
BTECH Inc builds battery monitoring hardware at 10 Astro Place in Rockaway, New Jersey, in Morris County. Founded in 1989, the company is a US-based manufacturer of monitoring systems for UPS, cabinet, rack and flooded-cell battery strings — the kind of equipment that lives in data centers, telecom sites and utility substations. Hardware like that is built around wire: sense leads, harnesses and interconnect cable, in many gauges and jacket colors, bought and stocked on spools.
Material Handling USA supplied and installed one Vidir Wire Carousel — a motorized vertical carousel whose carriers are enclosed wire bays, Model W39123-0734-06 — at the Rockaway plant. The machine is the short version of the platform: 10’9" overall height on an 8’9" by 6’3" footprint, with seven carriers holding 21 individual wire bays. It is the model that fits a manufacturing building with a normal ceiling rather than a high-bay distribution center.
This project sits behind our vertical storage for manufacturing page and is part of the Vidir vertical storage line. The same platform is widely used on the distribution side of the wire business — see vertical storage for electrical supply and wire distribution.
Project scope at a glance
The situation
An electronics plant stocks wire differently than a wholesaler does. The spool count is not enormous, but the variety is: many gauges, insulation types and colors, each one specified on a build, and each one needed in small pulls many times a day rather than in bulk once a week. That combination is exactly what static spool racks handle worst.
On an open rack, small and medium spools end up two and three deep. The one an assembler wants is behind the one they do not, so spools get lifted out, set on the floor and put back in the wrong slot. Colors that look alike get mixed. Partial spools accumulate. And because the rack has to be reachable by hand, it can only be as tall as a person — so it grows sideways along a wall and takes an aisle with it, in a building where floor area is production space.
A wire carousel inverts that. Every spool sits on its own rod in its own labeled bay, the operator calls the carrier they need, and the machine rotates it to one opening at working height. Storage goes up instead of along the wall, and the pick face never moves.
What Material Handling USA supplied
Material Handling USA supplied and installed one Vidir Wire Carousel, Model W39123-0734-06: a freestanding powered carousel 10’9" high, 8’9" wide and 6’3" deep, with seven W39 wire-bay carriers, uprights with a 2" wire mesh front and a corrugated sheet metal back, and a front control tower.
Each carrier is divided into three wire bays — 21 bays in total — measuring 26.25" wide by 26.5" high, sized for spools up to 24" in diameter and 24" wide. Spools mount on wire bay rods; the machine shipped with fourteen 0.75" standard-duty rods and twenty-four 1" heavy-duty rods. Mixing rod diameters is what lets a plant re-cut a bay later for narrower or wider spools without modifying the machine.
Capacity is generous for the height. Even at 10’9" the machine is rated for 13,000 lbs overall with a 12,385 lb live load, and the average capacity per carrier is the full 1,000 lbs each carrier is rated for — so a short carousel can be loaded with full spools, not just remnants.
Controls are deliberately simple for a shop floor: forward/reverse push-button rotation on a fixed-speed drive, carriers moving at up to 21 feet per minute, driven by two 1.5 HP Leeson motors, with a mushroom E-stop, a main power disconnect and a security keypad at the front control tower. Power is 208V, three-phase, 15 amp on an isolated circuit. The machine is anchored to the slab with 5/8" HILTI KB-TZ stud anchors through 9.5" x 6" foot plates, and the finish is VM White Textured on both the machine and the carriers.
Payout hardware — meter sliders, spinner spools and loading dollies — mounts to the same machine and is cataloged on our vertical carousel accessories and options page. This project was ordered as machine, freight and installation; the accessories are available options rather than something supplied here.
Full product specifications
Below is the published product specification for the machine installed at Rockaway, taken from the Vidir specification sheet for this configuration. A carousel is a manufactured product, so these are the numbers used to confirm it would clear the ceiling, fit the wall and carry the spool weights.
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Model | W39123-0734-06 |
| Product type | Wire Carousel (vertical carousel) |
| Overall height | 10′ 9″ |
| Overall width | 8′ 9″ |
| Overall depth | 6′ 3″ |
| Overall weight capacity | 13,000 lbs |
| Live load capacity | 12,385 lbs |
| Carrier type | W39 wire bay |
| Total carriers | 7 |
| Total wire bays | 21 |
| Wire bay dimensions | 26.25″ W x 26.5″ H |
| Maximum spool diameter | 24″ |
| Maximum weight per carrier | 1,000 lbs |
| Average capacity per carrier | 1,000 lbs |
| Standard-duty wire bay rods | (14) 0.75″ rods |
| Heavy-duty wire bay rods | (24) 1″ rods |
| Drive system | (2) 1.5 HP Leeson motors |
| Electrical | 208V, 3-phase, 15 amp (isolated circuit) |
| Controls | Forward/reverse push button, front control tower |
| Automation level | Pushbutton controls |
| Drive configuration | Fixed speed |
| Control options | Mushroom E-stop, main power disconnect, security keypad |
| Max. retrieval speed | 21 ft per minute |
| Guarding | Uprights, 2″ wire mesh front, corrugated sheet metal back |
| Foot plate dimensions | 9.5″ D x 6″ W x 0.375″ H |
| Concrete anchors | 5/8″ HILTI KB-TZ stud anchor |
| Finish | VM White Textured (300-1106), machine and carriers |
| Warranty | 2 years parts and labor (manufacturer) |
| Included | English technical documentation, Vidir decal |
Install and site requirements
The factory order acknowledgement for this machine sets out exactly what the plant had to have ready, and it is a useful checklist for anyone planning a wire carousel in a working production building:
- Power roughed in ahead of the crew. 208V, three-phase, 15 amp on an isolated circuit per machine, with the wiring run before installation started and an electrician available part-way through the install for final hookup. The connection point is the front top right corner of the machine as you face it.
- One forklift, 3,000–4,000 lb capacity, with 4-foot forks and at least 12 feet of lift height, for unloading the machine and moving sections at the assembly point.
- One 18–20 ft electric scissor lift with a maximum 32" base width, for erecting the tower.
- A clear, level install area. The slab has to take 5/8" stud anchors, and the area needs to be free of racking and material so the crew can work a lift around the machine.
Vidir’s installers are certified on forklifts and scissor lifts and normally operate the site’s equipment themselves; where plant rules do not allow that, the site provides an operator for the duration of unloading and erection. The crew tests and demonstrates the machine before leaving. Our vertical storage installation services page carries the full site checklist.
What the plant gained
Wire carousel or static spool rack?
| Vidir Wire Carousel (used here) | Static wire spool rack | |
|---|---|---|
| Floor footprint | One 8’9″ x 6’3″ footprint | Runs along a wall plus a clear working aisle |
| Height used | 10’9″ of vertical storage | Limited to safe manual reach |
| Bay count | 21 labeled bays at 26.25″ x 26.5″ | As many positions as wall length allows |
| Spool handling | Spools stay on rods inside the machine | Manual lift on and off the rack |
| Retrieval | Carrier rotates to one opening at working height | Walk the rack, reach or climb |
| Wrong-part risk | One spool per labeled bay | Spools stored two and three deep |
| Access control | Enclosed mesh, keypad on the control tower | Open rack |
| Best for | A varied wire list picked many times a day | A handful of spools and low turnover |
The vertical carousel vs. traditional storage page applies the same comparison to parts and supplies, and our tool crib, die and mold storage page covers the other consumables a plant usually wants behind a keypad.
How to specify a wire carousel for a plant
Start with the wire, not the machine. List every spool type you stock, the largest spool diameter and width, and the weight of a full spool. Those numbers set the bay size, the rod diameter and the carrier rating — here, 26.25" x 26.5" bays, spools up to 24" in diameter, 1,000 lbs per carrier and a mix of 0.75" and 1" rods.
Then measure the building, because the building picks the model. This platform is built in several heights on effectively the same footprint: the 7-carrier machine here needs only 10’9" of clear height, a 13-carrier version runs 19’3", and the larger W45 machine reaches 21 feet. Check clear height under sprinklers, lights and any conveyor or crane runway, a level slab that will take 5/8" stud anchors, an unobstructed route to bring sections in, and 208V three-phase 15 amp power on an isolated circuit at the machine.
Decide the payout hardware up front, because adding it later means a second freight bill. A hanger meter slider measures wire as it is drawn off at the pick opening; spinner spools and loading dollies make loading and unloading a one-person job.
For the same 7-carrier machine in a contractor warehouse, see the wire carousel we installed for Duro Electric in Englewood, Colorado. For the taller 13-carrier version of this platform in another plant, see LeeBoy in Lincolnton, North Carolina, which stores harness cable in a 19-foot, 39-bay machine with twelve spinner spools; also IES Residential in McKinney, Texas; for a 21-foot utility storeroom machine, Tucson Electric Power; for large cable drums instead of spools, World Electric Supply; and for wire rooms inside other manufacturing plants, ABL Space Systems and BAE Systems in York, Pennsylvania. For taller or highly variable loads compare a vertical lift module, for budget ranges start with the vertical storage cost and pricing guide, and machine details for this platform live on the Vidir Wire Carousel page.
Shop Static Wire Spool Racks Online
Not every wire room needs a carousel. For smaller spool counts, these Equipto static wire spool rack units are available in our online store; call for carousel sizing or a quote.
Frequently asked questions
What is a wire spool carousel?
How many wire spools does this machine hold?
Does a wire carousel work in a manufacturing plant, not just a warehouse?
Do I need a high ceiling for a wire carousel?
How much floor space does it use?
Can wire be measured as it is pulled?
What power and site prep does installation need?
Do you supply wire carousels to manufacturers in New Jersey?
Wire spools spread along a wall of your plant?
Send us your spool list — largest diameter, spool widths and full-spool weights — plus your clear ceiling height, and we will size a Vidir Wire Carousel with the bay layout, payout hardware and installation scope your production floor needs.