Kalmar accelerates its product development with 5G private network

Kalmar, part of Cargotec, together with Telia and Telia’s partners Digita and Nokia, has implemented a new stand-alone 5G network for its Technology and Competence Centre in Tampere, Finland.

In Tampere, Kalmar has the industry’s largest port automation test field and world-class facilities and laboratories for prototyping, simulation, testing, monitoring and optimisation. Thanks to the private network, Kalmar is now able to develop new integrated solutions for the product development of communication and cargo handling technologies.

Antti Kaunonen, president of Kalmar Automation Solutions said,  “As a pioneer in terminal automation and energy-efficient cargo handling, we want to be at the forefront of utilising the latest technology in our product development. The reliable wireless 5G connectivity will help us develop even more efficient and safer container handling solutions for terminal operations.”

The stand-alone 5G network implemented in Tampere represents the latest 5G development and it is one of the first most extensive implementations in the world. The stand-alone network enables use of all the latest 5G features, such as private networks, network slicing and highly uniform automation implementations.

Janne Koistinen, director of Telia’s 5G Programme said, “Kalmar’s example shows that industrial 5G is now evolving to deliver on the promises that have been placed on the technology. It is great to see that Finnish companies are at the forefront of the world in demonstrating how 5G brings real business benefits through increased efficiency and security.”

Henri Viljasjärvi, business development director at Digita, said, “The state-of-the-art private network is always adapted to the customer’s needs, in Kalmar’s case it means delivering and building the latest network technologies to promote product development.”

A key element in the mobile technology project’s joint research efforts is the Nokia Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) solution. The Nokia DAC is an industrial-grade digitisation platform that provides a reliable, secure and high-performance private wireless network with industrial connectors and edge computing capabilities on a cloud-based monitoring system. Nokia Industrial 5G devices are used as a part of the end-to-end solution.