Egemin has won a big warehouse automation order from BNFW (Belgian New Fruit Wharf), the Fruit & Food division of Sea-Invest, one of the biggest terminal companies in the world for fruit handling.
The order comprises the automation of the existing fruit terminal at wharf 220 in the port of Antwerp. The automated transport and warehouse system is mainly based on the automation concept Egemin previously implemented with success for two other fruit terminals of BNFW. According to planning the entire system should be operational by April 2012.
Extensive system
In BNFW’s terminal, the fruit, bananas and pineapples, is stored manually inside the cold rooms for the moment. Egemin will rebuild the four existing cold rooms to fully automatic cold rooms with automatic transport systems for inbound and outbound storage. Each cold room is 12 meter high and has a total capacity of 1,060 pallet locations.
In order to unload docked fruit ships as quickly as possible the system will be capable of storing up to 600 pallets per hour. The system comprises the following installations: