Automatic loading dock

Joloda has installed an automatic
loading dock for global paints and
coatings company, ICI Akzonobel in
Stowmarket, Ipswich.

Part of a drive to improve and
speed up the internal dispatch
process, the loading dock has been
installed at the factory to load trailers
for a 500m shuttle to the warehouse,
where the trucks are off loaded with
forklift trucks. Eight trailers were also
fitted with the Trailerskate track, for
the 10 shuttle journeys made per day.

The Trailerskate system uses 15m
long dock driven elevated skates, that
pick up a pre-assembled load (up to
26 pallets weighing up to 30t) and in
three minutes load into a tracked
trailer.

When the 26 pallets are accumulated
on the dock, the skates are
elevated by an airbag system in the
skates, and then driven into the trailer
by a drive chain. The skates run on
four steel tracks in the trailer. Once
the load is in the trailer the air is
extracted out of the skates and the
load placed on to the trailer deck.