Jurgen Conrad, the newly appointed president and CEO of the U.S division of viastore systems inc. (616-656-8876, www.viastoresystems.com) introduced the "double-deep telescopic belt transfer," the company's latest in load handling.

The lateral belt transfer double-deep device, which stores and retrieves plastic totes and corrugated cartons direct to standard shelving products, was developed for a high throughput application in Europe and is just being introduced to the U.S. market. This double-deep storage strategy allows users to increase system throughput as well as attain greater storage capacity within a given cube. Throughput rates over 140 totes per hour are attainable with the device, which handles two cartons weighing up to 50 kilograms each. It can process up to 1,500 totes per hour.