CONVEYOR SYSTEMS SPEED COLD STORE OPERATIONS
Powered and gravity conveyor equipment from European Conveyor Systems Ltd is meeting the need for high-volume pallet handling with minimal use of lift trucks in a new cold store opened by Phil Hanley Ltd in Nottinghamshire.
The 129,000m³ store has 69 rows of mobile racking and four static racks, 10.5 metres high, for bulk storage of incoming goods on pallets and five mezzanine floors linked by goods lifts, where orders are picked for despatch. The whole warehouse apart from the loading bay area operates at -22°C.
The bulk storage racking is linked to the loading bays by a pair of powered conveyors, the ends of which are set at floor level so that pallets can be loaded on to them quickly by pedestrian pallet trucks. Each pallet is lifted to the height of the main conveyor by an automatic pallet elevator, and once three pallets have been accumulated they are carried the 36 metres to the bulk storage area. A reach truck then lifts them on to the racking.
The powered conveyors are each designed for a minimum throughput of 60 pallets an hour weighing up to 1150kg. They are primarily used to carry in-coming goods from the loading bays to the bulk racking but can be operated in reverse to carry pallets for despatch.
In addition to the main powered conveyors, ECS also installed 192 gravity lanes, 1000mm wide x 2500mm long, at the front edges of the five mezzanine floors to facilitate handling of pallets required for order-picking. Once the pallets have been loaded on to the gravity conveyors from the ground floor by lift trucks, they are collected by hand trucks and taken to the correct picking location.
September 2004
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