Conveyor bang on for TNT
February 1st 2007 Astec Conveyors recently won the contract to design a materials handling system at TNT's new £8.2 million Birmingham depot – which TNT claims is the first depot operation in the UK to be fitted with a hi-tech hubstyle sortation system. Provided with an overview of the potential system layout, constraints and operating criteria, Astec Conveyors in conjunction with TNT went about designing a concept that would provide an effective reversible materials handling system that could be operated by both night and backshift workers. TNT's proposal to reduce ground floor congestion included the installation of a mezzanine floor with a raised sortation conveyor system. This also was utilised to create a segregated area for handling very small packages and documents on the upper floor, whilst creating a better flow for bulk items and a marshalling area at ground floor level. Inbound goods are offloaded from collecting vehicles onto lineshaft conveyors to be indexed to a checkpoint, where they are weighed and appropriate details printed on the delivery/routing label. Following this procedure, parcels are merged and transported on a common close pitched powered roller conveyor, and up a reversible inclined belt conveyor to mezzanine floor height. Astec designed special modular merger units with close pitched segmented rollers that minimise possible 'dead areas' to provide optimum merge/diverting capability for large parcels down to small jiffy bag items. A barcode scanner checks and communicates information to the host TNT Universe computer and the sortation PLC system to ensure trace ability, whilst performing the updates in 'real time'. Items are then discharged down designated inclined / declined belt conveyors onto telescopic boom conveyors and into awaiting trailers to be delivered to the hub for further sorting. Returning outbound parcels from the hub are unloaded from trailers at the depot and fed onto the Astec sortation system to run in reverse, back up inclined / declined belt conveyors to the mezzanine floor, then through the barcode scanner. Barcode labels on consignments are scanned and items transported back to floor level and diverted down designated lanes for van deliveries. Astec Conveyors undertook the turnkey operation and project management, including certification of the mezzanine flooring. The line control PLC and control gear was housed in a new 'wardrobe style' control panel to IP55 standards, with special software to interface to the host TNT Universe computer system. More articles from Astec Conveyors Limited: | 
