Henco Smit Archives - Barpro Storage SA (Pty) Ltd

New innovations at Novo Fruit Packers

Barpro Storage News, cold store, Featured, General Interest, Latest Installation, Uncategorized / admin

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.

New innovations at Novo Fruit Packers Read More »

Novo Fruit Packers expansion needed Storax Mobile Racking

In 2015 Capespan Group continued its recent burst of growth with the acquisition of a modern new pack house on the banks of the Berg River in Paarl, Western Cape, as well as sizeable new apple and pear farms. Novo Packhouse, the state-of-the-art Topfruit packing facility opened in Paarl in 2009 was previously owned by Colors Fruit, and will allow its new owners to handle much of the abundant fruit harvest of the region including farms in nearby Ceres, Villiersdorp, Piketberg, Grabouw and the Boland. According to Capespan, the centre was already equipped with modern packing technology and storage, but this would not meet the needs of the extended operation, with increased volumes from their own farms as well as several independent growers. The decision was made to greatly expand the facility with new CA rooms and holding rooms. Additional new pre-cooling tunnels will be added in later. The expanded facility will now cater for the cooling, packing, holding, and export of apples and pears; but also the packing of other fruit – stone-fruits, grapes, etc. – with a total packing capacity of up to 120,000 bins a year. The existing pre-cooling ‘pull-down’ tunnels have a capacity of 560 pallets, and the new tunnels planned will increase this capacity to 800/900 pallets, while the new C.A. (controlled atmosphere) rooms for long-term storage can handle up to 26,000 bins. New holding rooms have added 1600 pallets (2000 tonnes) of fruit to the 600 pallets already accommodated in the previous facilities. Storax mobile racking was the system of choice for the new holding rooms. Novo Project Engineer Henco Smit comments. “Mobile racking working with Barpro SA was a no-brainer really. 1600 pallets, all of which are individually accessible, in rooms that would have otherwise carried not much more than half this number. With Barpro’s extensive track record of previous such projects, we had absolute confidence that the facility would be up and running on schedule. They did not let us down.” The project was successfully completed in the early part of the year, ready in time for the 2016 harvest. Alan Moule