Warehouse Systems Limited (WSL) has installed a new pallet racking system for Cottam Power Station to enable the site to itemise, label and store a diverse range of products in designated positions. Cottam, which is part of the EOF Energy group, was in need of modernisation to help improve efficiency, accuracy and safety.
The existing complex comprised two large high-walled warehouses supplemented by outdoor concrete yards for external storage. There was no proper storage system in place and the situation was compounded by the fact that a wide variety of different-sized items was being stored, including many bulky and awkwardly-shaped goods and some weighing up to a tonne each. An additional problem was the poor condition of the pallets being used, which were often not strong enough to support the required weights.

Items such as boiler inspection doors, large electric motors, pipe couplings and gear boxes were all stored together, stacked on the floor or on broken pallets. Very lightweight items such as air heater elements were also stored alongside these heavy objects. Cottam realised that this haphazard method of storage needed updating and asked WSL to devise a reliable solution.

WSL proposed an initial installation of around 200 pallet locations to enable Cottam to itemise, label and store products in designated positions. Individual bays of standard pallet racking were chosen to accommodate the heavy products, where many pallets weigh up to two tonnes. Standard pallet racking is by far the most versatile racking available, enabling standard fork trucks and hand trucks to be used without the need for specialised handling equipment.

Lighter products, weighing up to a tonne and stored in larger quantities, were moved four-deep into push-back racking, a good choice for efficient utilisation of space. Pallets are gravity-fed on rollers or trolleys and are accessible by level, again using standard pallet trucks. Indicators at each level help to show the number of pallets stored and spaces available. Tubular products are now stored in cantilever racking, designed to hold up to four tonnes per eight-metre level, with arms set up to accept both six- and eight-metre bundles weighing up to two tonnes each.

WSL then designed a versatile wooden pallet to support two-tonne loads on racking beams, as well as one-tonne loads on push-back racking and point loads from couplings and other oddly shaped valves. The awkward shape of some items threw up another challenge: because these were, in most cases, stored unsecured in the centre of a pallet, there was a distinct possibility that they would either move around or prevent the fork truck operator from being able to push one pallet against another in the push-back racking.

To resolve this, WSL supplied pallet collars, which provide a 200mm 'wall' around the outside of the pallet, giving a surface to push against when loading push-back racks, and preventing products from rolling around or off the pallets. The extra rigidity that the pallet collars give also enables pallets to be stored on top of those containing lighter products, thereby using space that would otherwise have been wasted.

Neville Proctor, managing director of WSL, commented: "We are really pleased to have been given the opportunity to devise a solution to Cottam's storage problems. The previous storage methods were outdated and, following modernisation, the whole warehousing and distribution operation is now much improved. Cottam now benefits from more efficient and safer use of both pallets and space."