Barpro: How to increase capacity in existing cold storage
Barpro is a long time Member of the RWTA and although they are based in South Africa, they have done work in the Australian Cold Chain. This article highlights how James Cunningham and his team are able to increase capacity in an existing cold storage facility. Read more below!
How to increase pallet capacity in an existing cold or freezer store:
As new cold stores become increasingly expensive to build, making better use of existing cold storage chambers should be attractive.
Barpro frequently installs mobile rails in new cold store floors together with fixed but “mobile friendly “racking system.
This means that the racking has been designed to fit on mobile bases at a later date. In Barpro’s market, the standard freezer racking is fixed selective, unlike Australia where it is double deep.
For instance, on one project in Namibia, a chicken abattoir had rails and fixed racking installed. 10 years later, the customer called for a second identical cold store to meet demand. As the abattoir staff had changed since the first project, there was no awareness of the original design. The payback on doubling capacity by simply installing mobile bases in the existing store was less than 6 months and took just three months to complete.
Mobile racking could also assist capacity-constrained Australian cold stores. The capacity gain over double deep racking is about 40% rather than 80 to 100% with fixed selective. Immediate accessibility to every pallet is a plus, and pallets are in full sight of the reach truck operator. An unscientific survey at one location in Australia suggests that put away /retrieving productivity in mobiles was 17% higher than for double deep.
Necessary steps to install mobiles in an existing Double Deep freezer:
Check floor for frost heave and make sure existing anti heave protection is working properly. Australian stores use sub floor pipes which are robust.
Check with your civil engineer that the increased rail point loads can be spread using a reinforced overlay slab so as not to damage either the existing floor or the subfloor pipes. Overlay slabs are about 150 to 200mms in depth. Where possible, access ramps are installed on the outside of the store.
Design the mobile racking.
Bring the cold store to ambient temperatures and remove existing racking.
Install the rails and support stools on the current floor, add reinforcing and pour...
Install the mobile bases, racking, additional lighting, labels, and new doors. If vertical rollup doors are already used, this should not be difficult. Bring the room to operating temperature…slowly.
Typical mobile initial design:
The project timeline will depend on the size of the store. The critical path is the time taken for overlay slabs to cure sufficiently. This is normally 28 days, and possibly longer if post tensioned. However, the racking can be installed during this period. On a 2000 pallet room the project should be completed in around 6/7 weeks from when the room is brought to ambient.
If you would like to investigate how suitable your existing freezers might be for retrofitting mobile racking, please get in touch with James Cunningham, Barpro Storage SA.
Contact: james@barpro.co.za
