Conveyors galore at whisky plant

Excel Automation has completed all four phases of the upgrade to the Chivas Brothers Palletisation and Automatic Despatch (PAD) facility in Dumbarton.

The project, for one of Scotland's largest bottling plants with storage for over 10,800 palletised loads, is expected to achieve a 50% increase in output.

Stephen Trainor, project manager for Chivas, says it was important that the company chosen for the contract had the experience to deliver a reliable and robust system.

Phases 1 and 2 involved a refurbishment of two automatic storage and retrieval systems and associated pallet conveyors, as well as new conveyor systems to improve the flow of palletised product into the warehouse. Excel also refurbished eight narrow-aisle stacker cranes.

Phase 3 included eight new production line conveying systems to transport different-sized cartons from the bottling plant into a new palletising plant where they are automatically sorted into pallet profiles. Over 1,000m of Excelveyor 500 belt-driven carton conveyor was installed.

The new high-level out-feed conveyor system installed for Phase 4 transfers cases from the automated stores through two barcode labellers and onto conveyor lines that remove in-house pallets and replace them with either a slip sheet or one of five types of shipping pallet. Loads are then transferred on a high speed (180m per minute) shuttle car to one of thirteen accumulation lanes, at the end of which is a turntable that automatically orientates the pallets to maximise lorry loads. Excel also supplied two AGV systems.