One of Wales’ top craft bakeries has simplified the loading of its products onto delivery vehicles by working with sara LBS to build a bespoke loading house at its bakery in Minera, near Wrexham.

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The loading house has to accommodate vehicles of a number of different types and sizes, including The Village Bakery’s own trucks and larger standard and double decker lorries, which are used to supply many leading supermarkets.

The Village Bakery produces high quality bread, pies and morning goods, so, when planning the new loading bay, it was decided that they needed the capacity to load up to 20 roll cages at a time. Each cage would carry multiple trays of baked goods, with the total load being as much as 5 tonnes.

A scissor lift was identified as the best solution for raising the cages from the warehouse floor level to the height of the trailer. To accommodate double decker vehicles meant the lift had to have a travel of 1650mm. Other specifications included overall dimensions of 2900mm wide x 5400mm long and the incorporation of a hydraulically operated bridge plate to provide a smooth path onto to the bed of the vehicles’ trailers for ease of loading/unloading the rolling cages.

With the specification confirmed, sara LBS set about designing the scissor lift. Most of sara LBS’s lifts are bespoke to their application, with the details of the design developed in close discussion with the client. A hydraulic drive was chosen as the best mechanism for The Village Bakery’s lift, as it is able to provide high load capacity in a compact system. sara LBS usually designs its hydraulic lifts so that the power pack and controls are mounted on the base frame for easy access and to ensure a compact footprint, a configuration adopted for this project.

The load requirements and dimensions were well within sara LBS’s experience, as it regularly builds scissor lifts of up to 8 tonnes capacity. While the lift stroke was slightly higher than usual, it presented few problems to the design team as there was plenty of room for the larger lifting mechanism.

For strength and longevity, the base frame and lifting platform are constructed of high quality steel, while the platform top is smooth with a non-skid surface for easy running of the roll cages and reinforced to cope with the expected maximum load. The decision to power the bridge plate, rather than have it manually operated, was based on the need for fast, efficient and safe loading of the delivery vehicles during the busiest periods of the day. Safety edges, a deadman’s control and emergency stop valves in the hydraulic circuits ensure safe and reliable operation at all times. In fact the scissor lift design exceeds the relevant BS EN 1570:1990 ‘Safety requirements for lifting tables’.

sara LBS did far more than just supply the scissor lift to The Village Bakery. Its engineers designed the whole loading bay, including roller doors at both ends of the loading area to ensure security, biosecurity and energy efficiency (the outer doors being insulated to reduce heat loss).

A significant feature of the loading bay is the inflatable dock shelter, another sara LBS system. Once a lorry is in position this inflates to provide a wind and watertight seal between the loading bay and the vehicle’s top and sides, which protects goods and personnel from adverse weather and helps to maintain the internal temperature of the warehouse while the loading bay is in use.

www.saralbs.co.uk

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