The Interroll Crossbelt Sorter
Cost-effective top-performance sorting for the United States
USA o Shepherdsville/ Jeffersonville: Thanks to its excellent performance, cost-effectiveness and dependability, Alliance Entertainment Corporation (AEC), America's biggest distributor of home entertainment products, commissioned an Interroll Crossbelt Sorter into their distribution center in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. The company now has a total of three Interroll Horizontal sorters. On October 2nd, 2008, a professional audience from the United States observed for themselves the impressive, cost-effective solutions from the Interroll Automation Business Unit, on location in the AEC distribution center in Shepherdsville, KY as well as in the Interroll Manufacturing Unit in Jeffersonville, IN.
Highlight: the Interroll Crossbelt Sorter with horizontal configuration.
Effective Distribution
The U.S.-wide AEC distribution network is based out of two distribution centers: one in Coral Springs, Florida and the other in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. At the heart of the AEC-Headquarters in Shepherdsville are three distribution cycles; one is designed for returns processing, while the other two handle the fulfillment process including everything from the moment orders which are received through the picking, conveyor and sorting process to final order processing and dispatch, performing the in-house handling of requests with almost full automation. With four induction lines per sorter, each of the three sorters has 200 destinations and processes 13,000 parts per hour.
Integrated solution: from receipt of order through sorter circulation
An ingenious order fulfillment system provides the route and the destination of each item: the system checks availability as soon as the order is received and then sends an order confirmation allowing the next item to be diverted. Once the order has been arranged by volume and removed from the warehouse, and has been placed on one of the four induction lines per sorter, the destination of the item is already set. A series of labelers applies the labels with all the relevant information to the goods being prepared for shipping. The CDs and DVDs are scanned and then automatically or manually inducted onto the horizontal sorter.
Expansive sorting technology: quiet, fast, reliable
13,000 items per hour run through each of the three Interroll Crossbelt Sorters at the AEC distribution center in Shepherdsville, for a total of 39,000 items per hour. With this in mind, the extraordinary smooth functioning Interroll Crossbelt Sorter becomes obvious. With its high-performance components such as the tough polyurethane encased guide rollers, steady conveyance over laser plates, reliable crossbelts (340 x 400 mm), the mechanically activated of crossbelts discharge selected items with the use of just two drive motors, with steel cables equipped with rubber block chains. The Interroll Crossbelt Sorter speaks for itself, and that's not all it has to offer.
In addition to its capacity and speeds of up to 280 ft/ min (1.4 meters per second), it also provides optimal use of available space. Its platform construction makes it possible to integrate the conveyor technology underneath the route taken by the sorter, with a removal line for empty boxes over the top. Further evidence of the application-oriented design of this high-caliber sorting technology comes in the form of the transfer and discharging of the storage media. The goods being sorted are fed in sideways to the direction of travel, and the discharged goods run over a cascade chute into one of 200 destinations fixed on both sides. The degree of freedom allowed in designing the destinations made it possible to incorporate just the right number of final locations to help save valuable space and reduce costs. Above all, the variable construction of the Interroll Crossbelt Sorter means a secure future and investment protection.
Prominence through technology
Customers should consider the following important criteria when looking at Interroll products: ease of maintenance, the wear-resistant construction of the sorters thanks to their patented mechanical drive, their low noise level and most importantly our zero tolerance for errors. It's not possible for items to get stuck, jammed, twisted, or knocked over: not at any of the four inductions, during transport on the carrier belt, or while being discharged out to one of the 200 destinations.
Worldwide customer references
Since 1999, Interroll has installed 73 crossbelt sorters around the globe, in vertical and horizontal designs, in more than 40 locations including the USA, Canada and South America. Interroll Crossbelt Sorters typically sort and distribute packaged goods in distributions centers of mail order companies, courier, express mail and parcel service providers, mail shippers and other logistics service providers. Classic unit load handling includes letters, small parcels, packages, bundled newspapers, bundled letters, leaflets, poly-bags, video cassettes, multimedia products, clothing and packaged food.
Long-term investment
Interroll Crossbelt Sorters are designed to provide users with crucial logistical ease of logistical operation and financial security via the highly available, easy-to-handle sortation technology. These sorters offer the perfect solution for future growth as a long-term economic investment with a quick return on investment (ROI) of two to three years.
Portrait of the Interroll Network
Wherever goods are packaged, stored and distributed, Interroll products are in use, around the world and spanning the entire value chain for a diverse range of industries. Interroll has established a leading worldwide position in selected products for internal unit load handling. Founded in 1959 and listed on the Swiss Stock Exchange SWX, the company currently employs around 1,300 people at 28 companies. Interroll is divided into three globally active businesses, under the leadership of a strategic holding company based in Sant'Antonio, Switzerland.
The conveying components from "Interroll Drives & Rollers" principally support regionally oriented plant manufacturers and OEMs. "Interroll Dynamic Storage" and "Interroll Automation" supply modules and subsystems to globally operated system integrators, multinational companies and end customers. In addition to mail and parcel distribution, unit load handling from Interroll also focuses on the food and drinks industry, airport technology, and the logistics service providers industry, and has further applications in the healthcare sector.
Contact Interroll:
Stephen Cwiak
Interroll Automation LLC
4650 New Middle Road
Bridgeport Business Center
47130 Jeffersonville (IN); USA
s.cwiak@interroll.com
+1 812-206-6117
