WH Scott
Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) for Industrial Material Handling
Purpose-built vehicles that lift and move loads through your facility without an operator at the controls — engineered around your load, your layout and your process, then commissioned and supported by our own engineers.
Automation Built Around Your Handling Problem
An AGV is a driverless vehicle that follows a defined route through a building, carrying — and in most of our applications lifting — loads between processes without a forklift driver or an overhead crane. WH Scott designs, manufactures, commissions, services and supports AGVs for manufacturing plants and warehouses across the UK and Ireland.
Every system starts with the load and the building rather than a catalogue. That is why an AGV often solves handling problems standard equipment cannot: restricted headroom where an overhead crane is not viable, large or high-value components that need controlled, damage-free transfer, and repetitive routes where manual handling introduces risk, cost and inconsistency.
Engineered to your application
- Designed to your load — capacity, dimensions, centre of gravity and lifting method are defined and agreed before anything is built.
- Works where cranes cannot — a practical route to automation in buildings with restricted headroom, limited structural capacity or no clear overhead path.
- Lift and travel in one machine — integrated lifting decks, forks or bespoke tooling so the load is picked up, moved and set down without a second handling operation.
- Repeatable, controlled movement — consistent routes and stopping positions that reduce the scope for operator error and load damage.
- Supported after handover — commissioning, planned maintenance and breakdown support from engineers based at depots across the UK and Ireland.
Lifting Solutions
Part of a complete lifting range
This is one of the complete lifting solutions delivered by WH Scott across the UK and Ireland — from radio remotes, hoists and crane components to fully bespoke crane systems. Explore the full range to find the right fit for your operation.
What We Need to Specify Your AGV
Every vehicle is specified from site data, not assumptions. A typical enquiry starts with four things:
- The load — weight, dimensions, centre of gravity, and how it needs to be picked up, supported and set down.
- The building — travel routes, aisle widths, door openings, floor flatness and floor loading, plus pedestrian and forklift traffic on the same routes.
- The duty cycle — journey frequency, distances, shift pattern, and the charging or battery-exchange strategy that keeps the vehicle available.
- The controls — navigation method, required stopping accuracy, and how the vehicle interfaces with doors, conveyors, machine cells and your wider control system.
From that information we produce a concept, a machinery risk assessment and a firm specification before manufacture begins. Where the AGV forms part of a larger installation, our in-house design, fabrication and installation team builds the supporting structures and handling tooling alongside it.
Where AGVs Work Well
AGVs suit repeatable internal movements in manufacturing and warehousing: feeding production cells, moving work in progress between stations, transferring tooling and moulds, and running finished goods through to despatch.
They are particularly effective in aerospace and composites manufacturing, where components are large, delicate and expensive and movement has to be controlled and predictable. WH Scott has supplied AGV systems into industrial manufacturing environments including GKN Aerospace, and works in the same facilities on cleanroom cranes and controlled-environment lifting.
Safety and Compliance
A driverless truck is machinery, and it shares its working space with people. New AGVs supplied in Great Britain must meet the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008; in Ireland, EU machinery legislation applies. In both markets the recognised safety standard for driverless industrial trucks and their systems is BS EN ISO 3691-4 in the UK and I.S. EN ISO 3691-4 in Ireland, and we design and risk-assess to it.
Once the vehicle is in service the duty shifts to the user. PUWER 1998 in the UK and the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (General Application) Regulations 2007 (S.I. No. 299 of 2007) in Ireland both require work equipment to be suitable for its task, properly maintained and used by trained people. Where the vehicle lifts loads, LOLER 1998 thorough examination duties in the UK — and the equivalent lifting equipment requirements in Part 2 of S.I. No. 299 of 2007 in Ireland — can also apply. Our inspection teams can cover those examinations within your existing programme.
Get in Touch
Tell Us About Your Project
Whether you need a single piece of equipment or a fully engineered lifting system, our specialists can help. Tell us your load, environment and compliance requirements — we’ll do the rest.