More pallet storage for McCain Foods

A heavy-duty pallet handling system, which provides buffer storage between production and cold store, has been installed by European Conveyor Systems...

A heavy-duty pallet handling system, which provides buffer storage between production and cold store, has been installed by European Conveyor Systems at McCain Foods' factory near Peterborough.

The production area at the Whittlesey factory manufactures various McCain products, which are packed in boxes, stacked on pallets and shrink-wrapped before being transferred to cold storage. The previous system allowed little buffer accumulation of pallets, which was restricting the higher output needed to satisfy increasing demand.

The new system conveys pallets from an existing pallet stretch wrapper on to one of two zero-pressure accumulation conveyors, which provide space for pallets to queue without making contact with each other, acting as buffer storage within the cold store. At the end of each conveyor pallets are off-loaded by fork lift trucks.

The system is designed to handle GKN Chep pallets measuring 1,200mm x 1,000mm and with a maximum weight of 1,000kg each at 120 an hour.

Contact: European Conveyor Systems, Tel: 0115 987 4363