Latest Installation

NEW Walvis Bay Freezer Store

State-of-the-art Freezer Store in Walvis Bay

Above: Taken during the installation of their Storax mobile bases. In 2015, Deep Catch Namibia Holdings, after involvement in cold storage over the last 10 years, considered building a new cold storage facility in Walvis Bay, to supplement the high storage demand for the catch of Atlantic fish and imports destined for Namibia, DRC, Zambia and Zimbabwe.   By the following year, decisions were made to go ahead with this ambitious project, with a freezer space spanning over 2,850 square meters and facilitating some 8,360 pallets of product in a bespoke Storax mobile racking system.   The racking extends 6 pallet slots high under a 12 meter ceiling. The system is equipped with Barpro’s Cascade control system, operated from RF transmitters in each reach truck, and further enabling features like auto-aisle clearance, night parking and auto light switching.   Group Operations Director, Hilko Marschall, elected to use a Freon refrigeration plant, somewhat unusual in a store this size, however considered the best option for their application. The facility uses other high tech technologies in heat exchange and energy recycling, in addition to implementing high speed automatic doors and air dehumidifiers to alleviate high humidity and ice build-up.   Building commenced in mid-2016, and commissioning of the plant was completed by the end of May 2017, with the first product being received early June. Find more of our happy clients HERE     [gravityform id=”10″ title=”true” description=”true”]

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Euro catering

The ideal solution for Euro Catering

Marco Palmieri, himself a trained chef, started Euro Catering in 2001 to service the local and national hospitality and restaurant trades often needing sometimes-hard-to-get speciality foods imported from Europe – mainly Italy. Operating out of fairly modest premises in Killarney Gardens, the business proved successful, and stock levels began to strain the storage space available for it. Then in 2014 Marco teamed up with Nicholas Holman, and together they formed a new company, Palman Foods, so that now frozen local produce – fish, meat, poultry, etc. – could be added to their supply offering. Space now became an even more pressing concern. A freezer store was built but with only limited space this soon proved too small to be able to efficiently handle the volume of product involved; and the result was huge overcrowding whereby pallets were stacked one on top of another, filled the aisles and gangways, and nothing was quickly accessible without first moving other goods. An additional freezer was urgently needed, but only in 2016 did neighbouring premises become available, and this in the form of a conventional portal frame ‘shed’ with limited height and a pitched roof. The solution was cleverly conceived by Nick Mitchell of Frizon Refrigeration – an insulated freezer ‘box’, with associated refrigeration plant, built inside the shed by Intastore, extending even up into the pitch of the roof where possible. This made maximum use of the space, but the chamber was still only about 260 sq.m. and with a ceiling height of not much more than 6m. However, with the application of Storax mobile pallet racking Barpro were able to achieve a capacity of 300 pallets of frozen produce, all of which were quickly and individually accessible.   The entire project was conceived, installed and commissioned in mere months during the latter part of the year, and Marco had filled it with product virtually immediately. He now has storage space for better inventory levels, and is able to more quickly and efficiently service his customer base. Quotes Marco – “I’ve no idea how we managed before, and I’d hate to go back to the old way of doing things. Mobile racking certainly solved many of my problems”.       [gravityform id=”10″ title=”true” description=”true”] Read more: New innovations at Novo Fruit Packers Read more: Why Barpro Storage? – Its simple! These 5 points explain… Read more: Pallet Racking Safety  

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Novo Fruit Packers New innovations

New innovations at Novo Fruit Packers

Novo Fruit Packers New innovations – David Sheppard, MD of Storax UK, recently visited the new Storax mobile installation at Novo Fruit Packers in Paarl where he was kindly hosted shown around by the Project Manager Henco Smit. It was interesting for David to see the logistics at the origin of many of the apples and pears he will be buying in British supermarkets when he goes back home. The Storax mobile racking system is designed to hold 1600 hi-cube fruit pallets on 4 levels, and was completed just before Christmas 2016 in time for the deciduous fruit harvest as part of Novo’s brand new fruit sorting, packing and cooling operation. Apart for the Storax mobiles, there are several other innovations in this packed fruit store, including the use of RFID tags to identify pallet locations for the warehouse management system. The tags have been secured to the racking beneath each location, and are picked up by a receiver on the reach truck forks. A cleverly fitted camera on the forks, helps with accurately handling and positioning pallets on higher levels. This solution was supplied by “appsource”. For more information contact Andre Swart on 021 300 1057.   The pallet dispatch area is raised 1450mms and is designed to allow container doors to be opened and closed when the container is parked. It was decided to load containers by means of stand on pallet jacks supplied by Linde, another local first, as containers have always been loaded with counterbalanced forklifts. The “unusual” 1550mm ground to container floor height presented a challenge for Linde as their machines could not negotiate the container lip. This was overcome by increasing the machine’s rear clearance. The powered pallet jack is considerably lighter than a counterbalance and significantly more maneuverable, especially inside the container.                       Using stand on pallet jacks for loading containers and trucks is the norm in Europe but has been slow to find acceptance in South Africa. While it is true that the front outrider wheel can damage the bottom pallet slats when the pallet is picked up, this can be avoided by placing a wooden plank on the forks to govern the position of the pallet. Henco reports that, after their first successful season, all the new systems and equipment have performed exactly to plan, and Novo look forward further success in times to come.  

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