KWB - The users

The users

Soft drinks. At a leading soft drink company the production facilities were extended with a warehouse for distribution purposes on site. Due to the internal logistic flows the warehouse is situated at a location 400m from the production outlet. In 1998 among other equipment two trailers with an automatic slat-conveyor loading-unloading system where purchased at a competitor. Because of the high frequency combined with the tall payload regularly between 22 and 28 tons there was to much maintenance and unplanned stops. The parts suffering the most where both the trailers and the “picking dock” from where the load was picked by large forklifts for storing in the warehouse. After carefully examining the market for different solutions and the competitors by the customer the first trailer with Gocargo® was delivered in july 2002. After a good start of trailer and system through the peak period a picking dock was delivered in March 2003 and the second trailer with Gocargo® in May 2003. Some figures to illustrate the heavy use of the equipment, the first trailer has transported over 14.000 full freights of soft drink in only 13 months, the picking dock with well over 60.000 cycles under full load in five months.

Chemical Industry. To improve the efficiency the production of different locations on the same site of a phosphate producing company is being stored in a central automatic warehouse. In the production area both supply and outlet of products is mainly transported automatically. One problem that kept on returning in the automatic loading- and unloading process was the over blossoming of sacked goods and products being packed in “big-bags”. This was solved by equipping the Gocargo® docks with a guiding portal. In this portal the load is being checked and adjusted by a set of rolls which run at the same speed as the dock, the rolls press the load within the desired width before it is loaded into the trailer. When the load is unable to be pressed together to the set width the systems stop and can be adjusted manually. Also the connection to the existing equipment with the Gocargo® stations was executed by KWB. Due to the narrow space and short turns on the factory site a short two-axle trailer with a length of 12 metres was chosen. This trailer now transports an average of 550 freights per month with payloads up to 24 tons.

Food. For a factory producing all kinds of milk powder for worldwide customers all distribution and storing is being performed by a logistic service company. All of the production is directly being shipped to the warehouses of the logistic service company. From these warehouses it is being distributed worldwide. For a better efficiency in combination with the ever more strict hygiene regulations automatic loading of the trailers was chosen. Due to the pollution and exhaust gases internal use of the truck in the combined production storage location was no longer allowed. This is where the trailers where being loaded until now. In this location one loading dock is installed, the controls also steer the automatic door in the building. With this it is possible to dock the trailer and then open the door of the building, then the inflatable shelter is blown to close the gaps between the inside and outside of the building. After the trailer is completely loaded the door also shuts automatically. Because of these controls there is hardly any contact with the open air. With the use of these Gocargo systems both efficiency and hygiene have improved significantly.

Photographic Industry. At a well-known photo-film company with production facilities in the Netherlands supply, storage and distribution of products and production are performed by a logistic service company with a dedicated warehouse for this purpose. The main goal for this was to keep the logistics as efficient as possible. As the transported and stored products are very valuable it is very important that the work is calmly performed, this to avoid damages to the goods. This was one of the reasons to choose for several longer unloading docks. With the current equipment a total of eight complete trailer freights can be stored on the automatic docks. By buffering the load there is no stress on the forklift drivers rushing them into faults causing damages. The forklift drivers virtually have all time to store the products in the warehouse. One of the production plants already was equipped with a Gocargo loading dock, at the other two plants the trailers where being loaded as if they where completely standard trailers. All loading was done by driving into the trailer with a loaded forklift. Since this year also these two production sites are equipped with Gocargo automatic loading docks.

Truck production. For a very well-known Swedish truck manufacturer with production facilities in Zwolle three built in Gocargo docks where delivered in an extra strong version. The maximum point load is 3,5 Tons under the wheels of the front axle. The docks with a length of more than 60 metres are being used to transport completely assembled trucks. After the production line and final test the trucks are being placed on the Gocargo floor. On these floors the wheels are aligned and smaller repairs are being performed. The big advantage of this equipment is that these works are performed in the same speed as the rest of the production lines. As the trucks are being transported by the Gocargo there is no need for exhaust ventilation and also the motor does not get hot. This way it is much safer to work on the trucks. To enable it to work under the truck it is chosen to use two separate lanes of 90 cm wide with an internal space of 1 metre. In-between these two tracks there are pits to work in.

Conditioned transport. For the transport of the foil being used to produce safety glass temperature controlled transport is necessary. When the temperature gets to high the rolls of foil melt together and are not usable anymore. The foil is transported in crates with lengths up to 3,5 metres. Because these crates are difficult to handle there is a relatively high use of automatic loading-unloading equipment. The Gocargo system is ideal for this purpose because there is almost no loss of height and the belt of the system is not a cold bridge, therefor the doors look similar to a normal trailer. Gocargo systems are easy to connect to other existing systems. Besides this the trailer equipped with Gocargo is also usable as a complete standard refrigerated trailer. The loss of height and length are only 4 and 100 mm.

Paper industry. For the transport of raw materials and half products for the paper industry there are a great number of different trailers equipped with Gocargo systems. For the raw materials as wood chips, clay and pulp trailers with Gocargo are being used for over 10 years. These are all with a watertight body and a tarpaulin on top. These trailers transport both raw material as well as the paper reels from the factory to the different printing companies. Because the trailers with Gocargo are very easy to clean the paper reels can be transported clean and dry without the use of any expedients. For the transport of loose sorted wastepaper trailers are being used which are loaded automatically without the use of a truck. The trailers are parked under the outlet of the sorting machine and loaded automatically. This sorted paper is transported directly to the paper company to be used in the production of newspaper paper.

To transport paper reels without any protective packaging standard curtain Sider trailers with Gocargo are being used. In these trailers the reels are not strapped or locked with any kind of spanner. Because the Conveyor belt is si skid resistant it is not needed to secure the rolls. To get approval for these trailers from the German TüV and Dekra there have been extensive tests. These test where among others to do brake tests, driving in circles, driving in circles with a brake test, brake tests in reverse, etc. Because of the skid resistant belt and one adapter mounted to the bulkhead the paper reels did not move at all. The trailers are now being used in everyday use with all approvals.

Tabacco industry. KWB has a wide and long experience in the transport of tobacco products. Since the early eighties there has been use of trailers equipped with the Gocargo system to transport tobacco bales. Most of the systems in use are now connected to internal transportation systems in warehousing or production. Due to it’s construction and controls the Gocargo systems are ideal to connect to all kinds of different transporting systems. This ongoing automation is a logical step in improving the efficiency of the logistics and decreasing the chances of damaging products. By using the override able Gocargo equipment the expedition becomes neat and clean area with little risk of damages. The trailers equipped with Gocargo are with a fully closed body and ideally with an pneumatically operated door. This door will then automatically be opened by the controls of the stationary system along with the door of the building. This also reduces the risk of theft. When normal wing doors are being used these need to be sealed for each transport.