Conveyors & Sortation

Conveyor is conveyor - that might be the thought while touring a sophisticated distribution operation with miles of roller conveyor, but various technologies have many subtle differences in order to transport items with built-in accumulation functionality.

This white paper detail how understanding the choices in accumulation technology leads to better solutions for operations.

Furniture manufacturer and retailer increased productivity and expanded globally

Every year, expectations for the retail holiday season rise. Retail companies feel the squeeze of the economic recession and continue to look for cost-cutting outlets. As a result, suppliers across the globe must react to the competitive situation and develop a winning strategy for the holiday season.

The HL7200 provides the ultimate in flexibility by incorporating Columbia’s new programmable laner technology with Columbia’s proven soft turn and configurable layer table to provide accurate and stable layer forming.

Columbia Machine will once again demonstrate leading palletizing technologies at the upcoming Pack Expo Show.

The pressure for distribution centers to increase productivity and reduce labor cost has never been greater. One way distribution centers are helping to meet this goal is by upgrading from mature laser-based scanner technologies to newer digital reader technology that provide increased read rates.

Consumer packaged goods company Barcel USA needed an efficient integrated palletizing system to keep up with their growth.

Utah Brewers Cooperative, a small regional brewery that produces 25 different ales and lagers, realized in November 2010 that it needed a less labor-intensive way to palletize outgoing product. After installing a floor-level palletizer, the company was able to reassign workers to more value-added areas while more than doubling throughput.

“Perfect Pick is an automated goods-to-person delivery solution that utilizes intelligent iBOTs. It enables pickers to be much more efficient because product is delivered directly to them." -- Jeff Hedges, President, OPEX Material Handling

Fast fashion retailer Wet Seal designed a materials handling system that speeds new merchandise to its stores and accommodates growth.

SDI devised a phased installation plan that allowed Wet Seal to continue operating in the existing environment until we completed two of three automated unit sorters that would replace the existing operation. The existing systems were dismantled and the third sorter installed while Wet Seal distributed all the merchandise on the first two sorters.

DataMan® logistics barcode readers are the next generation of barcode readers for postal, parcel and package sorting operations and are rapidly replacing laser scanner and line scan systems around the world.

Why Automated Pallet Load Transfer Provides the Best Handling Practice

The DataMan® product line from Cognex offers advanced barcode readers that combine the benefits of image-based readers with the ease of use and cost of laser scanners for your postal, parcel and package sorting operations.

The latest innovation from Columbia Machine is changing the future of floor level palletizers.

The Science of Palletizing is an educational introduction to the basics of unit-load forming and is designed to familiarize you with the fundamentals of palletizing.

Columbia Machine's HL 6000 Dual Infeed Palletizer maximizes productivity for Ken's Foods

Together, the IDEXX and FORTE teams designed a new automated material handling system with two separate packing areas: one for single-zone orders and the remaining stations for multiple-zone orders.

Wet Seal’s distribution center is a prime example of a materials handling system designed to complement a retailer’s business model. In the case of this fast fashion retailer, the equipment, systems and processes are designed to receive, allocate, process and ship new merchandise to the retailer’s 554 stores within 24 hours of receipt.