By Bob Jane, Sales Manager Dynamic Systems at SSI Schaefer.

Bob-JaneHow can you boost your cold store cost efficiency and introduce flexibility at the same time? Better cold store design and more specifically better storage technology can result in considerably lower labour costs and energy bills.

A typical cold store utilises selective pallet racking technology with aisles widths of up to four metres. With any freezer warehouse storage system having aisles for lift-trucks to manoeuvre and turn-around, a lot of what you are freezing is the air.

With the cost of energy, property and labour constantly increasing, freezer warehouse owners should look at new technologies such as high-rise Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems, or better yet, Mobile Pallet Racking, which uniquely addresses building and warehouse heights under 15 metres.

Mobile Racking is a pragmatic, smart, state-of the-art solution for freezer warehousing It uses conventional selective pallet racks mounted on carriages and moving on running rails and guide rails embedded directly into concrete floor. Since energy expenses in a freezer warehouse are second only to labour costs, it makes sense to double the amount of pallet locations inside the building or reduce the initial building size. Doubling the amount of pallet positions can reduce the total cost per pallet position by as much as 40% in new construction projects, and can reduce utility bills by as much as 50%.

What if you don’t need more pallet storage locations? High-density storage solutions such as Mobile Racking result in a much smaller building footprint by up to 45%. This leads to a significant reduction in energy loss (and utility bills) due to the correspondingly-smaller roof structure reducing air escape. The other cost savings of a smaller, more efficient Mobile Racking warehouse include a 35% lower overall investment in construction costs and a reduction of up to 49% in energy utility costs.

Spalding-based facility of T F Bowman & Son worked with SSI Schaefer on designing storage facilities which would maximise storage capacity as well as providing safe freezer access. The company store meat, food products, fruit and flowers in ambient, chilled, blast-frozen, frozen and tempered conditions. With ever increasing demands placed on the business they recognised a need for improved service, responsiveness and availability seven days a week and so embarked upon a two-year programme of construction.

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Bowman invested in the first tempering and blast freezing facility in the country to be equipped with SSI Schaefer’s Orbiter pallet shuttle system. They have three tempering chambers one of which has been designed to work as a blast freezing chamber at -25ºC. Each chamber is able to accommodate 52 pallet locations in four channels across two levels. The pallets are automatically put away and retrieved using Schaefer’s Orbiter system, which makes human access to the chamber unnecessary.

SSI Schaefer also installed mobile pallet racking which provided high density storage for frozen products in 9,270 pallet locations. Bowman recognised SSI Schaefer’s experience and quality of product, with work starting on-site in April and the project being completed within 12 weeks.

SSI Schaefer provides a full range of materials handling and storage systems which include pallet racking and fully automated picking, storage and retrieval systems, warehouse management, project management and design services.

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