Welcome to the 15 June Warehouse & Logistics News. As Britain finally basks in the sunshine, our features also have a summer feel, to inspire you to crack on with the essential job of keeping the supply chains moving rain or shine. ‘Cold Storage & Distribution’ takes a cool look at the latest vehicles, equipment and services available to help manufacturers and retailers maintain their products at the correct temperature in the supply chain. And our Doors & Curtains feature takes in a selection of industrial doors, curtains and roller-shutters that give a sterling performance in all weathers.

chazMachine Vision is crucial to track items in high volume, fast moving logistics operations. In our interview we hear from Malcolm Smith, UK Sales Manager-Logistics of VITRONIC, one of the leading experts worldwide in the field of machine vision. Continuous development of software and hardware components and consistent investment in R&D keep VITRONIC in front, with customers in logistics and manufacturing industry, and also in such areas as speed enforcement, traffic control and toll collection and body scanning.

VITRONIC’s latest innovative product for logistics operations is the VICAMSnap!, a multipurpose camera-based Auto-ID-system for capturing and processing 1-D and 2-D codes, which works twice as fast as laser scanners. In 1997 UPS used VITRONIC technology for its parcels identification in its largest European distribution centre in Frankfurt, Germany. VITRONIC’s solution included the first videocoding systems for parcels weight and combined volume systems. Updating the story, UPS recently asked VITRONIC to carry out a new installation for their Cologne-Bonn airport facility. In co-operation with an X-ray technology specialist, VITRONIC’s part of the solution combined a camera-based ID system with an X-ray inspection system.

The products VITRONIC’s equipment scans move pretty fast, but presumably most of them don’t travel as fast as the Caterham F1 car on our front page! Last December, Linde Material Handling (UK) became the official materials handling supplier for the Caterham F1 team, supplying three counterbalance trucks to load over 25 tonnes of equipment onto the air freight containers which transport Caterham’s kit by air to Grand Prix competitions across the world, including Shanghai, Abu Dhabi, India, Brazil and Texas. As our cover story reports, to complement the truck fleet on hire at the Caterham site in Leafield, Oxfordshire, Linde has recently delivered an Approved Used Truck to help with moving the epoxy moulds used to make carbon fibre composite panels for Caterham’s F1 cars. We look forward to bringing you the next lap of this exciting story.

Enjoy the sunshine.

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