This article originally appeared in Pallet Enterprise Magazine.
There are few products with a quicker cycle time and a shorter shelf life than the daily news. And in a highly automated newspaper printing plant with no tolerance for down time, high quality pallets can make all of the difference. Such is the case at The Toronto Star, Canada’s largest daily newspaper. It is printed at the company’s 230,000-square-foot press facility in Vaughan, Ontario, just north of Toronto, which houses six MAN Roland presses. The plant also features automated material handling equipment, including palletizers, laser-guided robotic vehicles and conveyor systems.
“Because of the size of the facility, we use unmanned Laser Guided Vehicles (LGV) to automatically store and retrieve skids from our warehouses and for most in-house movement,” said Keith Scanes, assistant superintendent of the mailing room. Keith began working at the newspaper in 1970 as a part-time mailing room employee and was promoted to foreman in 1981.
The Star’s production process is highly automated. For example, the plant has 30 Alvey palletizers to ready bundles of newspapers for shipment. Because of the high level of automation, plastic pallets are used as slave pallets and also for shipping.
Read more at Pallet Enterprise.
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