Special van bodies design for warehouse shuttle
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by Bill Godwin
IN a recent reorganization of warehousing facilities for the Swiss Unilever subsidiary the need arose to open an additional storage depot some 13km from the Often factory. The new high-bay store at Harkingen has a capacity of 16,000 pallets and is linked with the production plant by a continuous shuttle service maintained by three 25-ton-gcw articulated vehicles. To reduce the time spent in loading and unloading, which otherwise would be disproportionate to the travel time, the firm has introduced a novel pallet handling system of which the specially fitted Ackermann-Willisau van bodies form an integral part.
Each of the 12.5 m-long, steered single-axle, light-alloy vans has a capacity of 20 pallets, which are
carried on a power-driven roller bed. Individual clamping frames are located above each pallet position, to allow for variations in load heights. These spring-loaded clamps are raised and lowered electrically.
An important component of the system is a locator wedge at the rear of the semi-trailer chassis. After backing the artic along a painted guide line within a lateral tolerance of alput 4cm (I) this vehicle locator engages in a roller-fitted guide frame below dock level. This serves to maintain the correct alignment between van rollers and warehouse track irrespective of spring deflection which occurs as the load is lightened or increased.
The driver now connects a power lead to the vehicle and (1) opens the electrically powered roller shutter, (2) releases the pallet clamps and (3) starts the powered track conveyor. Within three minutes of arriving at the warehouse reception bay all 20 pallets are transferred to the storage system. Conventional methods of handling up to 20 tons of palletized goods occupy between 30 and 45 minutes in the same organization.
The dispatch bay of the Harkingen warehouse is equipped for a similar automated sequence in reverse order.
The design and installation of the loading equipment and conversion of the Steyr-tractor hauled semitrailers was carried out by Walter Stocklin AG of Dornach, Switzerland.