19 August 2021
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Union Industries’ Simon Casewell, Ignes Saknaiti from Uniserve and Dave Bowden from Seafast
Union Industries has manufactured its largest ever rapid roll freezer door as part of a multi-door project for a giant distribution centre.
The Leeds-based company has supplied six of its Eiger Doors to Uniserve’s new 750,000 square foot ambient and freezer distribution centre close to the Port of Felixstowe.
Located on a 28-acre site, the multi-million-pound fulfilment centre will be BRC food grade accredited, bonded for both wet and dry goods in transit. Amongst its facilities will be a 100,000 square foot cold store and an 17,000 pallet spaces of frozen storage.
Contracted through the Felixstowe Mega DC’s main contractor, TSL Ltd, Union was brought in to supply its high-speed industrial freezer doors to help manage temperature control between a chilled and freezer location and support productivity through their fast-acting operation and minimal maintenance requirements.
Positioned adjacent to each other between a chilled marshalling area and the freezer, five of the Eiger Doors measure 4mx4m but are towered over by the massive 6mx4m door, the largest produced by Union Industries in terms of total area size.
The doors operate via a six-channel radio control system, which allows one transmitter to operate all of the doors individually. This ensures false activation is prevented, only allowing the doors to be opened when required.
Due to its size the giant door is fitted with a double ‘Eiger1000’ dehumidifier system which, in keeping with other Eiger Doors, is employed to keep the door free from ice. Also manufactured by Union Industries, the dehumidifier protects parts of the door from snow and ice build-up, which is a common problem for traditional freezer doors.
Opening at approximately 1.6 metres per second, the Eiger Doors close automatically after a short dwell time, which allows for continuous traffic flow without compromising the freezer temperature. As a result, warm air ingress into the freezer is drastically reduced, preventing the build-up of ice and frost around the doorway, which also leads to energy-saving benefits.
In keeping with other members of Union Industries’ range of high-speed roller doors, the Eiger Doors incorporate a bottom beam ‘crash-out device’, which minimises the effect of impact damage caused by forklift trucks. This system is supported by an auto-reset facility allowing the door to continue to work following impact, which ensures the freezer’s operation remains uninterrupted.
This is the latest in a series of large scale new-build distribution and customer fulfilment centre contracts secured in recent months by Union Industries and was overseen by its project co-ordinator, Simon Casewell. He said: “As new-build DCs get bigger it was inevitable that we’d soon break the record for our biggest rapid-roll Eiger Door, and we’re delighted that it is part of Uniserve’s mega site in Felixstowe. Since its launch the Eiger has disrupted the industrial freezer door market through its innovation and reliability and continues to be specified by contractors like TSL Ltd for prestigious developments such as this.”
Steve Penglase, project director from TSL Ltd, said: “The Eiger Doors provide the ideal solution, which ensures the DC can maintain high levels of productivity, eradicate downtime caused by ice build-up and minimise downtime caused by potential vehicle impact. Its team, led by its sales director Alan Hirst, have been very supportive through the specification and installation programme and bring extensive knowledge of the DC and cold storage sector.”
