According to the latest economic report published by the European Confederation of Food and Drink Industries (CIAA), a large number of European countries started 2013 with growth in the turnover of the food sector, and a total increase in exports outside the European Union of 4.1%.
The growth of the food sector implies a greater need for temperature controlled warehouses. With temperatures below 18ºC and minimum temperatures that can reach -30ºC, cold stores have to face additional challenges.
It is common to resort to palletizing through automated warehouses, thus minimizing the amount of non-refrigerated air that enters the cold zone and reducing personnel presence times under low temperature conditions.
In cases where automated warehouses are not installed, high-density storage metal racks are used, such as compact or drive-in pallet racking, which, by not requiring aisles, makes it possible to make the most of the refrigerated area or allows the use of a smaller area. This is especially important if one takes into account that it is energetically more expensive to cool the air than to heat it.
But storage at low temperatures not only affects the warehouse design, but also the maintenance operations, since the cold reduces the duration of the batteries, both of the data acquisition terminals for picking operations and of the electric forklifts . In the first case, it is solved using devices specially designed for these environments, duly sealed to avoid excessive cooling, and with larger buttons and highly sensitive screens to favor ergonomics when used with protective gloves.
In the case of forklifts, the use of high voltage batteries (48V as opposed to 24V or 36V), makes it possible to partially offset this effect. Another newer alternative is the use of forklifts with hydrogen fuel cells, since their performance is not affected by low temperatures.
Although the proper choice of the type of metal racking is important in every warehouse, in the case of cold stores it is even more crucial. ATOX, as a manufacturer of storage systems, can offer solutions tailored to the client, thus optimizing storage space in the refrigerated area, agility in maintenance operations and energy efficiency.