February 2020

HART DOOR SYSTEMS, a leading designer and manufacturer of both commercial doors and industrial doors, reports it has completed another contract for Sir Robert McAlpine at Nissan Manufacturing UK’s car plant, Sunderland. The contract involved the installation of four Speedor Storms and four Hart roller shutters, three of them insulated. Gordon Kipling, Hart’s North East’s sales manager, says the contract was for work at Nissan’s on-site plastics processing plant. “Working in a “live” environment has been challenging, with time pressured dates for certain parts of the project,” says Mr Kipling. “In terms of specification we provided technical support throughout, changing door types to suit exact requirements. The contract has worked out extremely well. We are also installing three more insulated shutters on site for an American company,” adds Mr Kipling. From its own office and manufacturing facility in Newcastle upon Tyne, Hart says it designs and manufactures its industrial door systems for a very wide range of sectors, often requiring bespoke solutions. Hart says this is a customer-friendly and highly innovative company. t | 0191 214 0404 w | www.hartdoors.com As part of an investment project to improve the automation at its Wolverhampton National Distribution Centre, BRAMMER BUCK & HICKMAN says it has recently completed a successful communication upgrade to its Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems, to ensure customers receive the goods they need when they need them. The company says this new upgrade completes a series of performance improvements to the cranes and how they transmit and receive data from Brammer Buck & Hickman’s warehouse management system. The upgrades also enable the system to self-diagnose problems and resolve them automatically ahead of a fully automatic restart. The upgrade project will now move into its final phase to replace most of the crane’s major mechanical (gearboxes and motors) and electrical control systems. w | www.bbh-rubix.com RTITB warns that transport and logistics training providers are struggling to fulfil delivery of apprenticeships due to a lack of suitable assessors able to carry out End Point Assessments (EPAs). The EPA ensures that an apprentice can do the job they have been trained to do and typically comes at the end of a 12-month programme of training and experience in the job role. “Recently we’ve spoken to a number of registered apprenticeship training providers who have been given lead times of 3 months by some EPAOs when they’ve requested EPAs for their LGV Driver apprentices,” says Laura Nelson, MD of RTITB, the preferred workplace transport training regulatory body, which is also a registered EPAO for logistics apprenticeship standards. Visit www.pwemag.co.uk to read the full release t | 01952 520200 e | epa@rtitb.co.uk w | www.rtitb.co.uk Logistics apprenticeships threatened The latest, 2019 RED LEDGE CORE development technology “enables faster systems implementation and delivers more affordable automation,” says the company, which is joined forces at Robotics and Automation 2019 with its new majority stakeholder BÖWE SYSTEC to launch the latest range of Red Ledge manufacturing and logistics (M&L) automation systems. In combination with BÖWE SYSTEC’s advanced sortation technology they are designed to support and integrate the entire supply chain, controlling M&L processes and tracking inventory from production line to warehousing and distribution. Red Ledge systems on show at Robotics and Automation 2019 included RFID goods tracking, robotics, autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs), automatic pallet movers and speed labelling. w | www.redledge.co.uk Supply chain technology Keeping it moving Supporting the increasing trend for logistics companies to make next or even same day deliveries with smaller vans, Ian Langan, technical director at loading bay specialist THORWORLD INDUSTRIES, advises on the benefits of van docking ramps as an ideal means to improve loading function, and enable the speedy, safe dispatch of smaller delivery vehicles: “The UK delivery industry is constantly evolving. As lead times become tighter and higher customer expectations for home delivery become commonplace, changes are needed to realise what is becoming a new distribution norm. Increasingly, we’re seeing logistics companies adapt existing working practices and bolster lorry or container fleets with smaller, more responsive transit vehicles as an alternative to, or in conjunction with articulated lorries.” Visit www.pwemag.co.uk to read the full release. t: 01246 260981 w | www.thorworld.co.uk More doors for Sunderland plant Van docking ramps Handling, Storage, & Logistics February 2019 www.pwemag.co.uk Plant & Works Engineering | 37