Linpac Plastics is a leading worldwide producer of a wide range of rigid plastic and expanded polystyrene (EPS) food packaging trays. The system is designed to transport finished products from manufacturing to the warehouse.
The pallet conveyor system was required in an effort to reduce handling, in particular ‘double/triple’ handling of products and thus reduce costs in an every present competitive industry.
The pallet conveyor system takes finished goods pallets from the manufacturing building through two fully automatic Maillis RA13 rotary arm wrapping machines, down into the warehouse. The warehouse is located in a separate adjacent building.
The link between the manufacturing and warehouse buildings posed a specific problem. A big difference in floor level resulted in a requirement for the link conveyor to operate at a decline of 7º. This posed no problems for the Q89 conveyor fitted with individual braked motors. During the phased installation, product was transported down the link without overwrap. No product slippage was reported. The link conveyors also provided pallet accumulation to increase temporary storage to optimise the use of warehouse personnel for unloading.
Part of the manufacturing area conveyor also incorporates automatic ‘Empty Pallet’ delivery. This is achieved using the same conveyor as transports loaded pallets. Four empty pallet destacker units are provided at the start of the system. These can deliver three different pallets types, ranging from 1500mm x 1200mm to 1200mm x 800mm. A graphics display screen is utilised to set up pallet requirements at any one of nine manual palletising stations. Empty pallets are requested at the stations and delivered automatically.
