Automation in the Cold Chain
Despite its complexities, automation can play a key role in the cold chain.
Automation is becoming an essential part of the warehousing industry. Whether meeting demanding ecommerce customer expectations or dealing with labor shortages and increase cost to material and shipping, automation can play an essential part of your operations. From traditional tools like conveyors, to automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS), Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMR), high-speed sortation systems, packaging equipment and more, the solutions are out there. But what about in the cold chain? Can the same automation work efficiently in low temperature environments?
To better understand, you need to break things down by the type of cold chain storage you’re considering. There’s cooler, which mostly ranges from 28 to 55 degrees; freezer, which goes down to negative 10 degrees; and finally, deep freezer space, which hits as low as negative 20.
In the cooler space, you’ll be storing products like fruits and vegetables, meat, eggs and dairy. In that environment, most automation will still work with little change or adjustments. A few steps you might need to take include insulating the control cabinets, using lighter-weight fluids for the hydraulics, maybe some different ball bearings or bushings. Otherwise, your biggest challenge for automation in this temperature is more about the large variety of packaging, which ranges from bags to jugs full of liquids like milk, and more. These variations limit your automation choices, but good options include ASRS, conveyors, and maybe some mobile robots.
In the freezer space, your considerations for automation do begin to change. You’ll use similar automation to what you would in a cooler space, but you’ll need to upgrade some of the componentry and ensure everything you use is built specifically for this temperature range. You’ll need heated cabinets for the controls, for instance, and updated hardware. You’ll need durable rubber components that won’t become brittle in the cold temperatures, a hard-wired versus wireless network, and sensors that can work in a freezer. Typical equipment in this environment might include fixed pallet cranes, fixed conveyors, and mini-load cranes. Most mobile robots aren’t quite ready to handle the temperatures here, but they may reach that point within a few years.
Your coldest environment is the deep freezer, which for the most part, means ice cream. You need to keep these products at a very cold temperatures so that they can make it to the end customer in their desired condition. Today, there isn’t much automation that works well in those extremely cold temperatures. Traditional conveyors with specialized sensors are an option, however. Other automation, like ASRS systems and Mobile Automation don’t have sensors equipped to manage that temperature range just yet.
Other considerations include the transition areas from cold and freezer space back to ambient. You’ll need an air blanket or curtain, for instance, to prevent the cold air from escaping when doors open and close. This will help keep sensors operational.
When commissioning equipment for the freezer, bear in mind also that the OEM must implement the automation in an ambient space, then allow it 20 to 30 days to stabilize in the colder temperatures. A final recommissioning is then to make sure every piece and part is operational. Installing automation in the cold chain can be complicated, but it can also be a boon to .
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