When a tote for an AS/RS is also a sprinkler

Oh, the millions of abused totes out there. They get filled. Filled to overflowing. Tossed to the proverbial curb. Jammed into too tight spaces. Crushed because of poor positioning. Split wide open. And eventually recycled. If the tote is lucky.

That’s quite a resume. Until now. Just ask Justin Beckerman over at Flexcon.

Not long ago, he got a project that was a first of its kind. Fortunately, he saw it as an opportunity for a client design and solutions specialist like himself. Actually, the proposition was quite simple. Design a heavy-duty tote capable of holding at least 70 pounds for automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS).

Most specs end there. But then came the kicker. The tote also has to act as a fire suppression mechanism. A sprinkler, if you will. Justin probably shook his head a bit. But then again, even that was probably pretty subtle since the company president offering up this plum assignment was his father, Ken.

Today, Flexcon is in the early stages of molding the first 175,000 of these totes for a leading apparel company. Those are just for the first of nine automated warehouses, explains Ken. Did he mention the patent pending on the tote design?

This is where the resume of all totes expands exponentially. Let’s start with the sprinkler angle.

As Ken explains, that apparel company was faced with $3 to $5 million dollars in additional sprinkler head and larger water pipe costs to meet its insurance company’s requirements for enhanced fire suppression. That is, unless someone came up with a better idea.

As the artwork shows, the tote features a unique sidewall design. It’s vented across the bottom of the tote. In fact, 32% of each sidewall is holes, which allows water from sprinklers above to drain out at an aggressive rate onto whatever is below that tote. It may not look like a traditional sprinkler head, but it sure acts like one. And the vents are constructed so no product in the totes can sneak out.

Better yet, the apparel company’s insurance company signed off on it after their own mathematical modeling and extensive testing. The outcome was no surprise to Justin. He had already proven it would work with the 3D printed models when he prototyped the tote.

By the way, there was a bit of a tight rope walk here in the design stages. While the tote needed to produce a water flow that matched what a sprinkler head would do, it also needed to be strong enough to hold 70 pounds plus. And the vents had to be designed so the AS/RS positioning lasers always bounce off the tote, not pass through it and impair operation.

Yet, strength was still an issue, explains Justin. That’s when the diamond design on the inside base of the tote came up. As the artwork shows, the diamonds form ribs that provide extra support to hold those heavy loads.

As if that weren’t enough, Stephen (yes, Beckerman), founder of Flexcon, thought molded-in handles would be nice, too. As the artwork shows, those handles, one on opposite sides of each tote, are rounded for ease of gripping. It’s a nice touch.

For Justin and Ken, this might all be in a day’s work, but when was the last time you saw a tote like this one? Never. You can talk to the Beckermans about this at the Modex show in Atlanta this month. Flexcon is in Booth B7411.