WITH transport being a key component of distribution systems for palletised product, materials handling specialist Industrial Conveying (ICA) is designing, manufacturing and implementing loading and unloading facilities suitable for the road industry.
Industrial Conveying says it provides this service for companies requiring a system that is able to pre-arrange products to conform to transportation requirements, and load and unload palletised product in an efficient and reliable way. It will also reduce time and handling costs associated with existing practices.
What also is taken into consideration is that end users often need to serve all types of businesses and destinations with huge variations in delivery quantities; in the retail sector, for instance, ranging from the largest supermarket chains down to the local grocery stores.
ICA managing director, Don Erskine, says until recently, many Australian companies had little choice except to approach a foreign company to design, manufacture and implement such a sophisticated system as most materials handling suppliers in Australia had lost pace with world’s best practice.
"However, a key aspect of our competitive advantage in projects of this nature is that we are an all Australian company, based in Australia, that can deliver a rapid turnkey result," Erskine says.
"By being local, we were able to significantly reduce the turnaround time compared to what an offshore supplier could deliver.
"We are able to deliver on time and on budget a modern and materials handling systems coordinated across more than one high-volume site that can work in synchronicity to facilitate a rapid and constant product-to-market demand."
Often the set requirement is for reduced handling associated with trailer loading and unloading to and from production and storage facilities.
"This is a critical issue,” said Mr Erskine. “The less handling, the better the return per truck trip, and when it is taken into consideration the capacity to load between two or more depots on a 24/7 basis, over the course of each financial year the client will see very significant returns.
"The idea is to automate docks so virtually no handling is involved. The use of expensive forklifts is obsolete as a mechanism performs all the loading and unloading, thereby eliminating all occupational health and safety issues associated with manual handling.
"The software link between depots is in real-time so that plant management is kept constantly up-to-date with quantities of product movement."
ICA designs, manufactures and implements two main types of docks - Route Docks and General Docks.
Route Docks operate using a specially designed air skate system that engages with a specialised flat-floor trailer configuration with inbuilt air guide rails for the loading of product.
With the General Docks, a chain conveyor system combined with an air operated powered chain floor trailer facilitates both loading and unloading of product.
The docks receive product from an automated conveyor-driven delivery system that rapidly forms the pallets into complete pre-arranged trailer loads, allowing trailers to be loaded in a turnaround time of 2-3 minutes.
"This is exceptionally productive as the pre-arranged forming of a complete load actually takes place before the transport vehicle has arrived to collect the load,” Erskine says.
"This system is infinitely faster than the archaic method of reversing an empty truck into the dock, using expensive and potentially dangerous forklifts to load the truck pallet by pallet, then checking off the paperwork before delivery starts.”
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