T F Bowman & Son, the Lincolnshire cold storage specialist, has installed an automated pallet handling and storage system at its Spalding facility.
The system, which was designed and installed by SSI Schaefer, is designed tomaximise storage capacity as well as providing safe freezer access. Bowmans stores meat, food products, fruit and flowers in ambient, chilled, blast-frozen, frozen and tempered conditions.
It has invested in the first tempering and blast freezing facility in the country to be equipped with SSI Schaefer’s Orbiter pallet shuttle system. They have three tempering chambers one of which has been designed to work as a blast freezing chamber at -25oC.
Each chamber is able to accommodate 52 pallet locations in four channels across two levels. The pallets are automatically put away and retrieved using theOrbiter system, which makes human access to the chamber unnecessary.
SSI Schaefer also installed mobile pallet racking which provided high density storage for frozen products in 9,270 pallet locations.
Managing partner Peter Bowman said: “Thanks to SSI Schaefer we are now able to cater for long or short term frozen storage, as well as providing automated tempering facilities. This added to our existing services of temperature controlled storage, order collation and independent QA inspection of fresh produce. We pride ourselves on delivering a personal, efficient service and customer satisfaction is paramount to what we strive to achieve at all times.”
