ECS keeps mother happy
June 1st 2007 A £550,000 goods
handling system at a
30,000m2 national
distribution centre in
Northamptonshire
operated by Exel for
Mothercare has been
completed by European
Conveyor Systems.
The NDC, which includes
some 14,000 pallet racking
locations and a mezzanine
with a 6000m2 footprint,
operates 24 hours a day five
days a week in order to
supply all Mothercare's 227
stores throughout the UK.
ECS was appointed to
design and install a conveyor
system to deliver in-coming
boxes to the storage and
racking and also to install a
number of goods lifts to
move products from floor to
floor. Provision has been
made for cardboard cartons
and plastic tote boxes in
various sizes and weights up
to 25kg.
Goods-in are unloaded
from delivery vehicles using
eight boom conveyors in the
loading bay area, some of
which are linked to pivoting
luffing sections that direct
cartons to the lines serving
the ground or first floor, as
appropriate. Four lines
serve the ground floor and
four the first mezzanine
level. The nominal capacity
of each unloading conveyor
is 500 boxes an hour, and
parts of the main system
include sections of
accumulation conveyor to
provide buffer capacity.
ECS also installed four
goods-only lifts capable of
carrying up to four pallets at
a time with a total weight
of 2000kg between the
ground and three
mezzanine levels. The lift
cars each have a light
curtain, wooden wear strips
at three levels and two PIR
sensors, which actuate a
stop sequence if they detect
movement within the car.
The lifts do not require a pit,
so no civil engineering work
was required. More articles from European Conveyor Systems Ltd: | 
