Tray washers help to protect the environment

The key to the success for A F Blakemore & Son and the environment is the use of reusable plastic trays for deliveries to the stores, in place of the disposable cardboard cartons previously used. “We started to consider making the move to trays about three years ago,” said Marc Deakin, General Manager at A F Blakemore, “but one of the issues we had to address was keeping the trays clean. With a small number of trays, manual or subcontract washing might have been an option, but, if the changeover was successful, we would be handling tens of thousands of trays per week.” “In-house washing was the logical option,” he continued, “and we were fortunate enough to have IWM recommended to us as potential supplier by an existing satisfied user of the company’s equipment.” The Crusader T600 tray washer has a maximum capacity of 600 trays per hour, and provides sustained jetting with hot water and detergent to ensure thorough cleaning. For economy, and to help protect the environment, the detergent solution is recirculated from a heating wash tank, using a powerful energy-efficient 7.5kW pump. The machine also provides solenoidcontrolled cold-water rinse from the mains and, in the A F Blakemore installation, it is fitted with a single blow-off section to remove excess water from the trays and assist with drying. “Not only was our T600 machine efficient and reliable,” said Marc Deakin, “we also received outstanding service from Industrial Washing Machines (IWM) at every stage of the project. It’s hardly surprising, therefore, that this year, when our tray scheme had grown in popularity to the point we needed greater tray washing capacity, IWM was the only company we considered.” The new machine is the much larger Crusader T1500, which has a nominal throughput of 1500 trays per hour split over two conveyorised lanes. It shares many of the features of the Crusader T600, but adds post-wash sustained jetting with hot water for even more effective detergent removal and, if the 85ºC water temperature option is used, a high level of sanitisation. The Crusader T1500 is modular, allowing its configuration to be precisely matched to the end user’s needs. For A F Blakemore, two blow-off sections are fitted, plus one heated section to allow a proportion of the pallets to be delivered fully dry and ready for immediate use. The T1500 was further customised for A F Blakemore by re-designing the standard in-feed system so that it would accept trays from a raised platform rather than from ground level. “The team from IWM provided superb service throughout,” said Marc Deakin, “and were very flexible and helpful in customising the machine to suit the needs layout of our particular site. The machine was also delivered exactly when we needed it to fit in with the rest of our expansion activities.” Such is the success of its tray scheme that A F Blakemore currently owns around 120,000 trays, 30,000 of which pass through the depot and require washing every week. With the trays playing such a large role in the company’s business, lack of availability through the failure of a washing machine is unthinkable. “I’m very happy to report that the equipment has proved exceptionally reliable,” said Marc Deakin. “The machines are clearly designed to deliver long dependable service lives, they’re robust and they’re very well built.” Thanks to its move to tray-based deliveries, which has to a large extent been made possible by the reliability and performance of the tray washers, A F Blakemore is now able to re-cycle more than 89% of its waste. And there’s a further big benefit – since the company’s suppliers now pack their goods in trays loaned to them, they save money on not having to buy cardboard boxes. A proportion of these savings have been passed on to A F Blakemore, so it would be very easy to argue that the tray washers will, in fact, pay for themselves over a very short period of time!