A warehouse operated by DIY retailer In-Excess UK Ltd has been equipped with a Thorworld electro-hydraulic dock leveller to speed up the unloading of containers.
In-Excess UK has four retail stores, plus a garden centre, in the Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire areas.
The dock leveller has been fixed inside a pit in front of a set of roller shutter doors at the company's newly-opened 30,000 sq ft central warehouse in Salisbury. It measures 2500mm long x 2000mm wide, has a capacity of 6,000kg and an operating range of +305mm/-300mm, and incorporates a swing type lip measuring 400mm long.
A 2 tonne fork lift truck drives up the leveller into a container to unload goods. They were previously offloaded manually.
The dock leveller's platform and lip are built from high tensile steel with an anti-slip finish. A low-pressure hydraulic system provides ease of operation and maintenance and the 112mm diameter cylinders are chrome plated with a built-in safety stop.
It is designed to operate in temperatures ranging from –30 degrees C to 50 degrees C.
Thorworld also supplied two dock safety guards to prevent fork trucks, pallet trucks and personnel from falling off the loading dock.
The 1.12m high red barrier, with yellow restraining straps, heightens dock safety awareness. Its 1.22m tall heavy-duty guard posts are constructed of 0.25 inch thick steel and provide excellent door track protection.
The barrier is designed to stop a weight of 4.5 tonnes travelling up to four miles per hour, with little or no damage to the barrier. It is designed to fit across openings up to 3m wide and is easy to manually open and close.
The guard post features a unique 'pocket' design allowing the barriers to be stored inside when not in use. The equipment was supplied and installed by Thorworld's local agent, Loading Bay Service Ltd.
Thorworld provides a one-stop, single source for a wide range of high quality loading & unloading equipment and loading bay accessories & safety aids, such as: dock shelters & seals, dock levellers, dock plates & boards, dock & vehicle bumpers, wheel chocks, modular loading docks and mobile yard ramps, as well as the Truckloada mobile yardlift and the Dockloada scissor lift platform.