58 DC VELOCITY AUGUST 2016 www.dcvelocity.com
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ROCHESTER DRUG COOPERATIVE (RDC) HAS
installed a new vertical reciprocating conveyor (VRC) in its
new 106,000-square-foot distribution center in Fairfield,
N.J. The conveyor raises pallets of empty totes and consumable materials from floor level to a 10,000-square-foot
concrete mezzanine that is situated 13 feet, six inches
above. The mezzanine houses many of the automated picking functions within the new Fairfield DC.
RDC is the nation’s seventh-largest pharmaceutical
wholesaler, serving pharmacies and related stores in the
Northeastern U.S. The New Jersey operation, which complements the company’s main facility in Rochester, N.Y.,
primarily serves the metro New York City area, Eastern
Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
There were two main reasons for choosing a vertical
conveyor rather than using forklifts to hoist pallets to the
mezzanine. “It was really a necessity to be safer and to save
time,” says Gary Ritzmann, RDC’s project manager for the
new facility. “The mezzanine is almost 14 feet high, so using
a forklift is precarious at best, and we are trying to keep
motorized vehicles away from all
order processing equipment.”
The vertical reciprocating
conveyor is a Series 21 two-post
hydraulic material lift from PFlow
Industries. Atlantic Handling
Systems of Fair Lawn, N.J., handled the specifying and
installation. (Atlantic also installed pallet racking and
shelving in the building.)
The VRC has an eight-foot-wide platform, so two full
pallets of totes or consumables weighing up to 3,000
pounds can be placed on it at a time. The platform then
travels at 24 feet per minute. It takes about 30 seconds to
reach the mezzanine, where a pallet jack unloads the pallets.
Since its installation, the PFlow VRC has worked flawlessly to keep the mezzanine stocked with totes and consumables. “So much so that it is never really thought of,”
Ritzmann says. “It needs no special attention, no repairs so
far—it just keeps working every day, in the background,
just working.”
Instead of using forklifts, a New Jersey pharmaceutical DC chose a vertical
conveyor to raise materials from floor level to a mezzanine.
An uplifting system
