Vidir Wire Carousel Case Study: BAE Systems, York, Pennsylvania
How a combat vehicle manufacturer moved its maintenance-stores wire and cable spools into a compact five-carrier, 15-bay motorized wire carousel.
Customer
BAE Systems Land & Armaments L.P.
Location
1100 Bairs Road, York, Pennsylvania 17408 (York County)
Product
Vidir Wire Carousel, Model W39089-0534-06 — 5 carriers, 15 wire bays
Application
Electrical wire and cable spool storage in maintenance and repair stores
About the project
BAE Systems Land & Armaments L.P. builds and sustains tracked combat vehicles at its plant at 1100 Bairs Road in York, Pennsylvania — one of the largest defense manufacturing sites in the state. A plant like that runs a maintenance and repair stores operation alongside production, and electrical wire and cable is one of the most awkward things it has to keep on hand: dozens of gauges and insulation types, every one of them on a spool.
Material Handling USA supplied and installed one Vidir Wire Carousel — a motorized vertical carousel whose carriers are enclosed wire bays, Model W39089-0534-06 — at the York plant. It is the compact machine in the wire carousel family: 7’11" high, 8’9" wide, five carriers, 15 wire bays, and a pick opening at standing height. Where a taller machine buys capacity with ceiling height, this one buys organization and controlled access inside a stores footprint that already exists.
The project is one of the installations behind our vertical storage for military and government page and part of the Vidir vertical storage line. The order came through a competitive request for quote and was placed as a firm fixed-price purchase order.
What we publish about defense and federal projects
On defense and federal work we publish only what is already public and what a buyer needs to evaluate the equipment: the customer, the publicly listed facility address, the class of material stored, and the full manufacturer specification of the machine we supplied.
We do not publish the building or room the equipment sits in, quantities or values of stored material, contract, solicitation or purchase order numbers, pricing, security arrangements, or the names of any individuals involved. If you need project references for a submittal, we will provide them directly rather than on a public page.
Project scope at a glance
The situation
Wire in an MRO stores operation is stocked, not consumed on a schedule. A maintenance electrician needs 40 feet of one gauge today and 200 feet of another next week, which means partial spools live on the shelf for months. Stored on open racking, those partial spools are the problem: they get buried behind full ones, nobody trusts the count, and a spool that cannot be found gets re-ordered.
The handling side is just as costly. Pulling a length from a spool sitting flat on a shelf means lifting it down, finding something to spin it on, and hoping the wire does not kink. On a manufacturing floor that is both a labor cost and a scrap cost — dragged or kinked conductor gets cut off and thrown away.
A wire carousel fixes the storage and the handling in one machine. Each spool sits on its own rod in a labeled bay, the operator rotates the carrier they want down to a single fixed opening at working height, and wire pays out from the bay instead of being lifted out of it. Because the tower is enclosed and keypad-controlled, stock accountability comes with it.
What Material Handling USA supplied
Material Handling USA supplied and installed one Vidir Wire Carousel, Model W39089-0534-06: a freestanding powered carousel 7’11" high, 8’9" wide and 5’9" deep, with five W39 wire-bay carriers, a 2" wire mesh front, a corrugated sheet metal back and a front control tower.
Each carrier is divided into three wire bays — 15 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, and the machine shipped with ten 0.75" standard-duty rods and seventeen 1" heavy-duty rods so the bay layout can be re-cut as the stocked wire list changes.
The drive is two 1.5 HP motors on a fixed-speed configuration that moves carriers at up to 21 feet per minute, with forward/reverse push-button control. A mushroom E-stop, a main power disconnect and a security keypad are mounted on the front control tower. Electrical service is 208V, three-phase, 15 amp on an isolated circuit, landed at the front top right corner of the machine.
The machine is anchored through its foot plates with 5/8" HILTI KB-TZ stud anchors into a level concrete floor, and is finished in VM White Textured powder coat inside and out. Payout hardware — meter sliders, spinner spools, loading dollies and reel dispensers — mounts to the same platform and is cataloged on our vertical carousel accessories and options page.
Full product specifications
Below is the published manufacturer specification for the machine installed at York. These are the numbers used to confirm it would fit the stores footprint, clear the ceiling and carry full spool weights.
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Model | W39089-0534-06 |
| Product type | Wire Carousel (vertical carousel) |
| Overall height | 7′ 11″ |
| Overall width | 8′ 9″ |
| Overall depth | 5′ 9″ |
| Rated machine capacity | 5,000 lbs (Vidir drawing 2-95382) |
| Carrier type | W39 wire bay |
| Total carriers | 5 |
| Total wire bays | 15 |
| Wire bay dimensions | 26.25″ W x 26.5″ H |
| Maximum spool diameter | 24″ (24″ maximum spool width) |
| Maximum weight per carrier | 1,000 lbs |
| Standard-duty wire bay rods | (10) 0.75″ rods |
| Heavy-duty wire bay rods | (17) 1″ rods |
| Drive system | (2) 1.5 HP motors |
| Electrical | 208V, 3-phase, 15 amp (isolated circuit) |
| Controls | Forward/reverse push button, front control tower |
| 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 | 10.5″ D x 6″ W x 0.375″ H |
| Concrete anchors | 5/8″ HILTI KB-TZ stud anchor |
| Shipping weight | 2,453 lbs |
| Finish | VM White Textured (300-1106), machine and carriers |
Delivery and installation
Installation of a wire carousel is a factory-crew job with a short, well-defined site checklist, and this project is a good illustration of how little disruption it causes when the site is ready.
Before the crew arrived, the plant electrician roughed in the 208V three-phase 15 amp isolated circuit to the machine location, with an electrician available part-way through installation for final hookup. The plant provided a 5,000 lb capacity forklift with 4 ft forks and 15 ft of reach for unloading and assembly, and an 18–20 ft electric scissor lift with a maximum 32" base width for the overhead work. Vidir’s installers are certified on both machines, which is the fastest route when plant rules allow it.
The install itself was scheduled for a single day and completed in that day, and the crew removed all packaging material before leaving. Coordinating the date around the plant’s holiday shutdown was the only scheduling constraint — a useful reminder that the commissioning date should be set against the plant calendar, not just the shipping date. 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 5’9″ footprint | Shelf or rack runs plus a clear working aisle |
| Vertical use | Stores to 7’11” and picks at one opening | Limited to safe manual reach |
| Bay count | 15 bays at 26.25″ x 26.5″ | As many positions as rack length allows |
| Spool handling | Spools stay on rods inside the machine | Manual lift on and off the rack |
| Payout | Wire pays out at the opening on its rod | Reel stand, then measure by hand |
| Access control | Enclosed, keypad on the control tower | Open rack |
| Best for | MRO stores with many gauges and partial spools | A handful of spools, low turnover |
Our wire spool carousel vs. wire reel rack comparison covers the economics, the vertical carousel vs. traditional storage page applies the same logic to parts and supplies, and the tool crib, die and mold storage page covers the neighbouring problem in the same stores area.
How to specify a wire carousel
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 to 24" diameter, 1,000 lbs per carrier and a mix of 0.75" and 1" rods.
Then check the building. This is the compact platform, so it fits under a low stores ceiling: clear height above 7’11", a level concrete floor that will take 5/8" stud anchors, an unobstructed path to bring the machine in, and 208V three-phase 15 amp power on an isolated circuit at the machine. Where you have 15 to 21 feet of clear height, the taller W45 platform doubles or triples bay count on a similar footprint — compare the 21-foot, 36-bay machine at an electric utility and the eight-carrier, 24-bay machine at an aerospace manufacturer.
Decide the payout hardware up front. Meter sliders, spinner spools, loading dollies and reel dispensers all mount to the same machine, but retro-fitting them later is a second freight bill. For higher or highly variable load profiles, 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. Related applications: manufacturing and electrical supply and wire distribution.
Frequently asked questions
What is a wire carousel?
How many spools does this machine hold?
Will a wire carousel fit under a low ceiling?
How much floor space does it use?
What power does a wire carousel need?
What does the site have to provide for installation?
Can wire inventory be locked down?
Do you supply storage equipment to defense manufacturers and federal sites?
Wire spools spread across your stores shelving?
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 stores operation needs.