Cross-docking made easy

Cross-docking equipment helps companies meet customers' demands for quick and accurate product delivery.

By Staff -- Logistics Management, 10/1/1998

Cross-docking--the movement of goods from the receiving dock directly to the loading dock, without being stored in a warehouse or distribution center--allows companies to expedite the flow of products to their customers. To make sure this process runs smoothly, it's important that shippers choose the right equipment.

Shippers today can choose from a wide array of equipment, ranging from automatic-identification technology to carousels to dock levelers. The following is just a sample of what's currently available.

Rapistan Systems has introduced a pneumatic tilt-tray sorter, a modular sorter that features a simple mechanical design with few moving parts. Using a series of trays on a linear conveyor to divert small parcels to multiple locations, the bi-directional sorter can handle packages and envelopes of many shapes and sizes up to 24 pounds. The sorter, which can run at up to 140 feet per minute, is capable of sorting 6,000 cartons per hour.

Packages and envelopes can be manually inducted onto the pneumatic tilt trays and scanner information is entered. A scanner reads a bar-code label on top of the items and relays the information to the programmable logic controller (PLC). The PLC translates the data from the bar code into divert information and triggers a valve to release pressurized air to tilt the tray.

A minimum amount of air pressure--just two to three pounds--is required to operate the sorter.