Case Studies - Plastic Boxes in Stacks

Issue
Halfords is a British chain of more than 400 shops. The products are among others a wide range of accessories and care products for cars. Goods are daily delivered to these stores from centrally placed warehouses. At the warehouses the goods are packed into boxes marked with bar codes. They are automatically stacked. When introducing double-decker trailers it was necessary to find a new way of transporting the stacked boxes into the trailers. The task was thus to lift and transport stacked boxes (up to 6 boxes of 120 kg) from the warehouse and into the trailers.

Solution
We developed a minilift with forks and hooks. The forks are driven directly into the tracks of the lower plastic box and the stack is lifted from the floor. The hooks fitted on a stanchion fit in the handles of the boxes and secure that the boxes remain hanging when the stack of boxes are driven over the loading platform and into the trailer. This solution is also suitable for lifting single boxes or piling down stack of boxes.