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helps it meet Health & safety regulations . Faced with potential health and safety concerns regarding its workforce having to manually unpack containers that included an extra head-height layer of bananas, Fyffes' Wakefield depot looked around for a solution to the problem. The answer came with the new LayerMaster forklift attachment from B&B Attachments, a revolutionary new clamp specifically designed to cope with palleted loads that require splitting for easier handling and storage.
Now used with a new Linde truck, B&B Attachment's LayerMaster has dispensed with the need of manual handling and a platform and has provided Fyffes with a safe means of unpacking the container without the need to handle heavy boxed goods above head height. As well as using the LayerMaster to remove layers of pallets from containers, Fyffes also utilises the attachment and forklift to load bananas onto trucks for onward transportation to supermarkets.
“We receive between 30 or 40 containers a week with up to 20 pallets in each container”, said Andrew Joyce, Site Manager at Fyffes Wakefield. “The LayerMaster ensures product is handled quickly and safely with minimum use of resources.”
The versatile LayerMaster can lift a third of a 2400mm high pallet at a time or alternatively just a single layer of boxes, thereby enabling the load to be quickly broken down or built up by clamping single or multiple layers. It can be adjusted for a wide range of products including boxed and frozen goods, glass and plastics containers, tinned products and plastic trays. As it makes contact with the load on all four sides it requires minimal force to lift, thereby eliminating any possible damage to the packaging or product.
Designed for easy and quick removal, the LayerMaster fork lift truck mounted system can quickly be moved to any location within a warehouse thereby helping speed up the movement of goods in fast moving environments. It is available in three different mounting types to suit specific requirements and forklift truck fleets. Where multiple layer weights or varying products need to be handled, a special pressure valve with three different pressure ranges can be supplied and fitted by B&B Attachments qualified engineers.
“Unpacking pallets of bananas from containers and moving them into the ripening rooms is now a lot better”, said Andrew Joyce. “We have been so pleased with the LayerMaster that we have recommended it to other Fyffes depots in Livingstone and Basingstoke”, he concluded.
About B&B Attachments
B&B Attachments is the exclusive distributor of Kaup attachments in the UK and Ireland and Lift-Tek Elecar masts. The company has developed unrivalled resources in the attachments industry during its 25-year history. The acknowledged leading supplier of technical support, casual hire, contract hire, field maintenance and inspection programmes, B&B Attachments operates from two sites in Newbury Berkshire and Cramlington Northumberland.
About Fyffes
Fyffes is one of the largest tropical produce importers and distributors in Europe with a turnover of 500m euros and an infrastructure that reaches across the globe. The Group is primarily involved in the production, procurement, shipping, ripening, distribution and marketing of bananas, pineapples and melons. It currently markets fruit in Europe and the United States primarily under the Fyffes, Turbana and Nolem brands.
