Foods firm upgrades handling for M&S contract

Tamar project engineer Steve Towsey says: “The existing conveyor was 12 years old; it was extremely noisy, very unreliable, difficult to maintain and couldn’t handle the M&S totes. So, to meet the terms of the M&S contract we had to invest in a new conveyor solution.

“The new system also had to handle our own cardboard cartons which vary in size and shape. In addition, we wanted it to have an accumulation capability. The old system didn’t have this and with our very high throughput rates it caused endless problems. An issue anywhere on the system meant we had to stop the entire line, which led to product piling up and high levels of inefficiency.”

Tamar worked with Axiom engineers to develop a solution to replace the old conveyor from end to end. The solution was based on Axiom’s poly-v belt driven roller conveyors and belt conveyors using an aluminium profiled side frame. The accumulation system featured zero line pressure (ZLP) control to avoid any product damage.

The conveyor system is fed from three packing stations – two manual systems and one fully automated packing machine. The packers can pack up to 77 totes per minute which the system then has to merge and convey from the three packing areas.

To supply the packers with a constant feed of empty totes, Axiom designed an overhead tote delivery conveyor which transports totes from a holding area to the packing face. The packers then simply select the next empty tote from above their station and pack into it without having to leave their station.

A combination of packed totes and cartons join together over a series of merge conveyors onto one conveyor that twists and turns its way up a series of inclined belt conveyors into the roof void. The conveyor passes through the long tunnel where a series of roller conveyors queue product for delivery to the dispatch hall.