A world leading provider of automated handling systems, Daifuku has announced that they have successfully completed a complex project that involves the design and installation of two state-of-the-art, high bay stacker cranes. This work has been completed at Trinity Mirror’s Oldham print facility. The site is the home of what is now the UK’s largest newspaper, magazine and digital publisher. Trinity mirror works in a highly competitive market therefore it is essential that the facility offers the best process efficiency and supply management, which are all key strategic considerations.

The two newly installed fully automated Daifuku cranes have been installed in order to futureproof the demand for print services at Trinity Mirror’s Oldham facility. The two cranes have been manufactured at Daifuku’s extensive production facility, which is located in Japan. The double mast cranes handle three different sizes of paper reels which are delivered from paper suppliers in the UK, Scandinavia and Russia.

The team working on this project from the automated handling systems company had to work with flexibility and in a way which was highly planned in order to accommodate the fully operational Oldham plant. The facility is open seven days a weeks and doesn’t have any shutdown periods. When it came to installing the new cranes, the work was carried out mainly during the weekends in a staged process.

The tight timescales were a challenge of this particular project, as were the complex nature of the crane installation process into an already established infrastructure. The new Daifuku system has been installed as a replacement for the original cranes, that were first installed in 1989 and have been suffering from metal fatigue and obsolescence issues, these issues and the age of the cranes meant finding spare parts was difficult and possibly costly. The investment that has been put into the Oldham Trinity Mirror facility is important is essential to maintain the world-class efficiency levels of the printing hub as well as the reliability of the site in order to help it to compete in the commercial landscape of the publishing sector.