Van Sillevoldt Rijst-Ploeger Transport BV

Van Sillevoldt Rijst is one of the biggest rice mills in Europe, processing cargo rice to white rice for amongst others private label retail sales. The shuttle operation between the facility in Papendrecht and the DC in Tilburg is provided by Ploeger Transport BV. Ancra have installed a chain conveyor loading system at Van Sillevoldt Rijst and a further unloading system at Ploeger Transport BV.

Two trailers are equipped with Ancra’s four track chain conveyor system. One trailer is used for backup while the other one shuttles 20-25 times per day between the facility and the DC. Ancra applied its specific expertise because the trailer systems had to be installed in used tautliner curtain sided trailers. This type of trailer has more distortion and deflection, which makes them less rigid than boxtrailers. This needed to be taken into account when designing and engineering the systems. Another important point of attention was to keep the maximum payload of the trailer as high as possible. At the production facility the stationary system is index loaded by forklift trucks. The convergent assembly of the chain tracks allows for fluent loading into the trailer. Europallets and own industry pallets can be loaded in a mixed pattern.

When arriving, the trailer is guided into a positioning frame or “Docking Unit” installed in front of the stationary loading bay to align the trailers position correctly. Prior to loading, the complete truckload is verified by an outline checking device to prevent cargo and truck damage. At the DC the stationary system is mounted vertically to bring the pallets from a height of 250mm up to 600mm. Here the pallets, with a maximum weight of 1000kg are automatically unloaded. Due to the re routing construction of the stationary system, this allows fluent pallet picking by the forklift trucks. This project is a clear example how the automatic truck loading systems of Ancra adds value to the supply chain, and optimizing the coupling between production and expedition.