Mobile racks keep air and product moving

Distributor Ceres Fruit Growers is always seeking to balance maximized storage capacity with temperature and humidity control in its perishable cold storage environments. Having recognized that optimized circulation helps maintain product shelf life, save energy and reduce operating costs, the company installed a mobile racking solution (Storax). As a result, it increased storage capacity while maintaining full product accessibility and improving air circulation.

“For more than 20 years, we have been utilizing the mobile racks in our produce distribution facilities, which has allowed us to increase our practical storage capacity by 75% to 80% and decrease our energy costs due to improved air circulation,” says Deon Schickerling, electrical and refrigeration manager at Ceres Fruit Growers. “We have numerous aisles moving simultaneously, which provides not only full accessibility to each pallet location, but the speed we need in our high-turn environment.”

Energy costs are a major contributor to cold storage facilities’ overall operating expenditures, and by eliminating and replacing static access aisles with moveable aisles, the facility has increased storage capacity within the same building footprint. The level of efficiency and productivity also increases with unobstructed access to every product storage location while decreasing the number of forklift touches.