"tucking in" the Charters of Freedom

At the end of each viewing day at the newly renovated National Archives in Washington, D.C., the Charters of Freedom—the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights—all slide nicely back into a secure vault, and we have HK Systems to thank.

As part of a two-year archives renovation project, HK Systems Inc., a provider of automated material handling and supply chain software solutions, oversaw the system design, manufacturing and installation of three precision shuttles, door lifting hoists, and carts for the shuttle transfer system responsible for moving the documents. The transfer system will transport the documents at the beginning of each archive viewing day from secure storage vaults to display windows located in the Rotunda. At the conclusion of each day, the transfer system will transport the documents back into the vaults.