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.