Differences Between VNA and Turret Truck Aisle Designs

As more warehouses pursue higher storage density to reduce unit operation cost, very narrow aisle (VNA) vehicles and turret trucks have become two of the most popular options for high rack storage scenarios. Their aisle designs follow completely different logics to match corresponding operation features, and understanding the differences can help enterprises make more reasonable layout plans.

For VNA aisle designs, most systems adopt ground guidance or rail guidance to restrict the moving track of the vehicle, so the aisle width only needs to reserve the safe redundancy based on the body width of the forklift. Under conventional 1.5 ton load capacity, the reserved extra space on the basis of body width only needs to be 150 to 200 millimeters, which can greatly reduce the space occupied by the aisle and leave more area for storage racks. This kind of aisle design is very suitable for warehouses with high shelves above 12 meters, low cargo turnover frequency and clear long-term fixed storage requirements.

For turret truck aisle designs, the vehicle does not rely on fixed ground guidance facilities, and its fork can rotate 180 degrees to access goods on both sides of the aisle without turning the whole body. The aisle design of turret trucks does not need to reserve space for guidance equipment installation, but needs to leave enough safety margin for the rotation of the fork and the side expansion of the operation range. Under the same load standard, the aisle width of turret trucks is usually 300 to 500 millimeters wider than that of VNA aisles. This design gives the turret truck higher operation flexibility, allowing the vehicle to drive out of the aisle to complete other operations such as truck loading and cross area material handling, which is more suitable for warehouses with high cargo turnover frequency and multi-scenario operation demands.

When choosing between the two aisle design schemes, you need to comprehensively consider the actual conditions including warehouse building structure, daily operation throughput, post-maintenance cost budget and future expansion demand. If you have relevant doubts about electric forklift equipment selection or aisle planning, you can turn to Jianshu New Energy for professional suggestions, and you can also contact the technical team of BYD Forklift to get customized supporting solutions. You can send your specific demand to the email 17399989919@163.com to get detailed parameter reference materials. A reasonable aisle design can effectively reduce the collision risk in daily operation, extend the service life of shelves and equipment, and bring stable cost reduction and efficiency improvement for the warehouse.