ENGINEER TO ENGINEER
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Wireless control slows FLTs
Based in the UK, Pladis
Global is a global snacking
company that is home to
brands such as McVitie’s,
Ulker and Godiva. Still
Materials Handling has
been supporting the
company with ongoing
materials handling
requirements and everchanging
needs at the
Ashby-de-la-Zouch site
for the last 15 years, which
now boasts over 25 trucks.
During the course of
ongoing health and safety
surveys across the site
(with continuous site
improvements ensuring
that the workforce is kept
as safe as possible), Pladis identi ed two key
‘pinch points’ within its warehouse operations.
Within these key areas, Pladis felt that forklift
trucks and pedestrians were too close to one
another, with no other option but to pass in
close proximity.
A decision was made to look at a way of
slowing the eet of trucks down in these areas
to ensure maximum safety and minimum
risk of a pedestrian or forklift truck accident
occurring. The challenge was to nd a system
that would minimise the downtime of the
trucks, maximise productivity, require little
or no ongoing maintenance, allow a higher
speed only upon request (to stop the truck just
accelerating away), to be cost e ective, but
most of all to be safe and as tamper-proof as
possible.
Speed was identi ed as a key factor that
the trucks would need to maintain in low risk
areas to ensure that productivity was kept to a
maximum. A speed zoning system was decided
upon, which led to Transmon Engineering being
invited to the site to discuss their own in-house
designed systems.
Transmon put forward a design for speed
zoning that also allowed the use of switchable,
in-built speeds within the Still trucks to help
keep the costs down. The speed zoning system
utilises a similar setup to fast rise door loops.
A pair of indication loops are installed into the
oor at either end of the ‘zone’ to be used.
This method of installation ensures longevity
of the system, as it is hard wearing and will not
fade over time. These loops are then detected
in sequential order by the truck that is passing
over them. Finally, this order is then used to
determine the direction the vehicle is travelling
in, and what speed needs to be used by the
truck.
Transmon Engineering was duly contracted
to carry out the project and collaboratively
worked with Still to install the units and
program the trucks. The system has now been
in operation for several months.
Ross Munro, sales director at Transmon
Engineering, comments: “The volume of trucks
meant that our system would be a perfect t
due to the arduous forklift conditions it has
been speci cally designed for. Several site
visits combined with a speci c modi cation to
the system enabled it to be compatible with the
electric trucks and the in-built speed controls
that these already impressive trucks have.”
Help from
Hydra-Cell
Hydra-Cell Metering Solutions
has solved a pumping
problem for a large supplier of
polyurethane foam production
equipment.
The company was using
external gear pumps to deliver
a curative catalyst in the
production of sound deadening
foam for the automotive
industry.
The curing agent contains
amines but, being water-based,
it’s non-lubricating, a hazard
for pumps that rely on dynamic
rotary seals that are in contact
with the pumped liquid. External
gear pumps work best when
pumping lubricating fl uids,
so they did not handle the
curing agent well. The pumps
were prone to wear, exhibited
low effi ciency and caused
unacceptably high shear within
the product.
Hydra-Cell API 675 Metering
Pumps are said to have provided
the ideal solution to the
problem. Since the application
could not risk contamination by
the hydraulic fl uid, extensive
testing with Mesamoll oil,
a plasticizer and acceptable
substitute, was conducted before
a Hydra-Cell Metering Solutions
model P200 was installed for
evaluation.
The outcome was so
successful that Hydra-Cell P200
pumps have been steadily
replacing the gear pumps on the
customer’s systems installed in
automotive plants around the
world, according to the supplier.
June 2019 www.operationsengineer.org.uk 31
/www.operationsengineer.org.uk