Conveyors are a warehouse essential for ecommerce and large retailers, and Hi-Level Mezzanines has the expertise to install mezzanine flooring that is perfectly adapted to their use.
The sheer extent of the conveyor belts operating in distribution centres can be breathtaking.
In Amazon’s facility in Coventry there are nine miles of conveyors, while this rises to an astonishing 22 miles in an Amazon centre in Michigan.
We have designed mezzanines for conveyer systems that carry small Amazon parcels – and for one-tonne pallets for the Coca Cola bottling plant in London.
At Hi-Level Mezzanines we have the capability to design platforms specifically for conveyers because we have the advanced engineering skills and the pinpoint understanding of the challenges that conveyor belts bring.
Factors to take into account when choosing a mezzanine to carry conveyors
When we are engineering a mezzanine solution to take conveyor belts, we begin by considering:
- Static load, the weight of the conveyor itself.
- Dynamic load, the load travelling along the conveyor.
And we design for a worst-case situation where the conveyor stops abruptly and the mezzanine must withstand the full force upon it.
Our team of qualified structural engineers then evaluate the following factors:
- The all-up weight of the conveyor, which can range from 150 kg/m to 1000kg/m
- Whether it will be single or double stacked
- The centres of support, i.e. the legs on the mezzanine decking
- The width of the conveyor
- The baseplate size under the legs, so that we can calculate the point load
- Frequency.
We also consider whether timber decking is the best solution, as we have installed for Amazon, or whether, as for Coca Cola, the conveyor should sit directly on our support beams.
Bespoke mezzanines for conveyor systems
Our work for Amazon was part of the company’s sortation process in its Derby facility. Thousands of robot drive units pick up mobile shelves of products and take them to employees who select the items they need for each order. Items are placed in plastic crates that are carried to the packaging areas on conveyors running on our mezzanine floors. After being labelled, parcels go onto a different series of conveyors that sort them according to delivery destination.
Conveyor systems are often mindboggling operations that are underway 24/7.
The load on the mezzanine is therefore relentless, and this is where our exceptional engineering skills are so valuable. We design a bespoke solution for every client.
Hi-Level Mezzanines has the expertise for the longevity, durability and safety of mezzanine solutions to fit your requirements.
Contact us today for more information at sales@hi-level.co.uk or call 01730 237 190.
