S.M. Opens New Kent Depot
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Mechanical handling Methods Fully Exploited in a Building SpeciallyDesigned for Them : Total.
Capacity 2,000 Tons
DESIGNED for the employment of int e rnal mechanical-handling methods, a new distributive depot has been opened at Aylesford, Kent, by S.P.D., Ltd., to serve an area bounded on the north by the Medway towns, and round the coast to Eastbourne in the south and out to Ashdown in the west. Depots at Canterbury and Maidstone have been closed.
The storage capacity of the building is 2,000 tons of miscellaneous products and 400-450 tons are distributed each week by a fleet of 11 Commer vans. All incoming goods are first palleted. A railway bank extends along almost the full length of the building at the rear, whilst the road-vehicle bank in the front, which can accommodate nine vehicles, is used for loading vans and for unloading incoming lorries when the delivery vehicles have vacated it.
A headroom of 17 ft. is afforded in the depot; this allows four pallet-toads to be stacked on top of each other to a height of some 16 ft. The walls are completely flush.
A Stacatruc battery-electric 30-cwt, fork-lift truck and twoLansing Bagnall battery-electric • pallet trucks are employed. Two 11-ft.-wide aisles extend the full length of the storage area and there are three aisles running across it. The stacking area is 1,455 sq. yds. and the aisles take up 721 sq. yds.
When delivery lists for the following day's consignments have been made out early in the afternoon, the Stacatruc withdraws pallet-loads of 'various products from the stacks and deposits them in the loading bay. This process is known as bulk assembly and involves the movement of about 90 tons of goods. It occupies 1 hours. As many vehicles as possible are loaded before the evening for the next day.
When palleted loads arrive on road vehicles, the Stacatruc is driven out of the-building down an inclined runway to ground level to unload them. , This is done at the rate of Li minutes per ton. The depot has a float of 2,500 pallets which each measure 4 ft. by 3 ft. 4 ins, and are of the four-way entry pattern. A small number of metal-cage pallets is also in use.
A separate room in the depot is provided for the storage of some products which do not lend themselves to paneling, whilst a lock-up store is used for holding expensive and highly perfumed products. Any goods that arrive damaged are dealt with in a re-coopering room. A separate garage can accommodate nine Nehicles.
The building has a steel frame and the brick walls have been treated with Vermiculite exfoliated mica for insulation. The floor allows for the superimposition of heavy loads, having a capacity of 7 cwt. per sq. ft. The roof lights are of non-actinic grass which lets
through light but not heat. Fluorescent lamps are used for artificial lighting, with tungsten-filament lamps fot emergency service.
Other special features include the fitting of Aberdeen-type doors, and glass bricks used for the top and sides of the loading hank to give maximum illumination. C.A.S. (Contractors), Ltd., erected the depot to S.P.D.'s requirements, whilst the electrical installation was designed by the electrical section of Unilever, Ltd.
This depot is the second of 38 which are being opened in various parts of the country. The first was opened at Stockton last year, whilst the third, at Liverpool, will be completed in two or three months.