Arcadia Dairy, a juice bottling plant, needed to expand the carton filler room because of a new machine needed. By expanding the room, this created a situation which forced them to move one of their palletizers. The decision was made to relocate both their palletizers to one location. We designed a Hytrol Conveyor System that transports filled cartons through the plant to a single location that housed their two palletizers.

The AS/RS stores incoming parts for use in the manufacture of larger assemblies. The parts must be checked for quality and then placed in a tote and the tote labeled and then stored in the AS/RS.

The infeed conveyor systems accumulate a number of totes. Two totes on each line are lifted above the rollers for pick up by the AS/RS pick up device. The device has two platforms that reach out over the rollers and pick up two totes at a time. This reduces the number of trips the AS/RS must make to the pick up location.

Engine Power Source, a supplier of engine parts for forklifts, generators & similar motors, consolidated their parts from shelving in a 40' x 40' 2-level catwalk mezzanine to three (3) 9' x 9' Hanel Lean Lifts. Parts are protected from dust and are brought to the operator. The picking window is well lighted and at a comfortable height. They have since experienced an increase in picking speed, inventory accuracy and the ability to efficiently serve customers' needs.

Fairfield Chair, a furniture manufacturer, needed us to design an overhead conveyor system that started on the first floor at the end of the production lines and travel through the second floor to the third floor, where finished products are stored. On the third floor, the conveyor runs near the existing overhead conveyor and back down to the production area. The workers can take the chair frame off the new conveyor and locate the frame to the proper location whether it is on the existing conveyor or a staging location.

This manufacturer produces large rolls of paper (102" high x 102" diameter weighing 2000#). These rolls are then slit into smaller rolls for consumer use. The manufacturer transported all the rolls by forklift, quite often, over long distances throughout the facility.

We helped them implement heavy duty conveyors with super rugged modular plastic belting to accumulate the rolls waiting to be picked up. The rolls are then positioned with custom designed tilt tables made so the straddles of the Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs) can fit under the tilt table but still straddle the tilt table base. The tilt tables have two "wings" that hydraulically center the roll on the table and position them to be picked up by the AGVs which then carry the rolls with a pole boom through the core with the core horizontal to the floor.

The primary purpose of this project was to provide an improved quality product while reducing inventory cost by providing on time machining capability. The key to the successful implementation of this project was the material handling function. The challenge was to provide a reliable safe transport system to handle a wide range of unit load sizes between warehousing, machining and sanding departments. Reliable automatic control of the system was essential; operator interface was to be minimized.

For sock manufacturer Slane Hosiery Mills, a packaging area that depended on manual conveyors provided to be the weak link in the manufacturing chain. The company recently replaced all of the manual conveyor with a powered conveyor system, and plant production jumped over 20%. Employee morale climbed upward as well.

The combination of the new conveyor system and the additional workstations has produced an impressive 20 to 25% increase in plant output. And by eliminating the manual pushing of cartons on the old conveyors and reducing the amount of lifting required, the new system has improved employee morale at the same time.

Robert Yates Racing needed an industrial grade open shelving system after moving to its new facility. Within days, AEC had finished installing a custom designed storage system consisting of Lyon Workspace Products' shelving, bulk storage sections, and pallet racks.