Beumer Group is about to commence field trials of a sortation system at the new hub of UK Mail, the UK’s largest independent postal operator, in Ryton, near Coventry, UK. The company was awarded the contract in January 2014 and the hub is due to go operationally live on May 1.
The system is based on the company’s energy-efficient Crisplant LS-4000 CB cross-belt sorter and includes 10 infeeds and 88 outfeeds, and has a processing capacity of 24,000 items per hour.
One of UK Mail’s major requirements was that the sorter had to be capable of handling everything from the size of an iPhone up to packages 1.4m (4.5ft) long x 70cm (27 inches) wide x 80cm (31 inches) deep, and weighing up to 50kg (110lb). The Crisplant system is one of the few on the market that can handle such a range.
To ensure the sortation system would continue to be able to give many years of service, one of the design considerations was how to expand capacity. To enable this, Beumer Group put the capability into the machine for future expansion, with certain parts beign left blank but ready for new machinery at a later stage. When implemented, the machine can be upgraded to handle 32,000 items per hour.
In addition to the LS-4000’s direct environmental benefits, with its extremely low power consumption, Richard Wenham, UK Mail’s network development director, is delighted with how quiet it is: “At peak periods in our current hub all 300 employees on site have to wear ear defenders. When we move to Ryton they won’t have to wear any hearing protection at all.”
Wenham said of his experience of working with Beumer Group: “It’s been three long years and I’ve enjoyed every moment of it. Beumer Group has made the journey a real pleasure and I’m expecting our partnership to continue when we start planning our next hub in the south of England.”
April 13, 2015