Battery system looks up to save space
December 1st 2010 Afour-high lift truck battery
charge and change facility has
been installed by EnerSys as
part of a refurbishment project at the
St Helens regional distribution
centre operated by the logistics arm
of The Co-operative Group. The
system makes the best possible use of
available space on the minimum
footprint and eliminates manual
handling.
The 582,000 sq ft (54,000 sq m) St
Helens regional distribution centre
was originally opened by Somerfield
around eight years ago to serve local
convenience stores in the North West
and Wales. Somerfield was
subsequently bought by The Cooperative
Group in 2009.
After the acquisition the logistics
arm of The Co-operative Group
decided to upgrade the site, which
covers 42.8 acres and is by far the
largest in its expanded nationwide
network, to bring it in line with its
other warehouses and incorporate
the latest equipment and services to
support efficiency and sustainability.
"Multi-tier battery banks have
proved themselves at our other
distribution centres and going fourhigh
is a safe and flexible solution
which follows best practice," says
Chas Shepperson, National MHE
fleet manager at the logistics arm of
The Co-operative Group.
In conventional installations
batteries are typically arranged at
ground level with their chargers and
any other ancillary equipment
alongside or, more usually, overhead.
This makes it relatively easy to
exchange batteries without any need
for lifting. However in the very
largest warehouses it can take up a
lot of expensive floorspace.
Multi-tier installations have been
around for some time. Batteries are
stored above each other to make
better use of floorspace and handled
in and out of racks using specially
adapted handling carts. These were
generally restricted to two or three
levels in the past because of
limitations with the hydraulic
performance of the handling
equipment. EnerSys eliminated these
issues at The Co-operative Group's
Chester-le-Street warehouse by
creating a battery handling system
with a fully-electric battery changing
cart without any need for hydraulics.
A version of this machine, which was
based on the popular Pro Series BBH,
was built for handling batteries on
four levels at St Helens. More articles from Enersys Ltd: | 
