Heathrow parcel processing centre automated
ASENDIA HAS installed automated sorting and six new robots for over-labelling at its parcel processing centre at Heathrow, which became fully operational at the end of May 2022.
The newly automated system is driving a significant parcel throughput increase on behalf of retailers, e-commerce brands and other clients, achieving a rate of up to 7,200 parcels per hour, with the site open seven days a week, and able to operate 24 hours per day. Asendia UK has invested £2.5m of CAPEX in these improvements.
Parcels arrive onsite and an automated cross-belt sorter, with scanners, printers, digital photography and six robots together take care of the relabelling, routing, sorting, weighing and dimension-checking of parcels. The system is able to sort into bags, pallet boxes, or onward into air containers.
Employees who were previously engaged in manual labelling and sorting at the site are largely being redeployed to other essential supply chain operations within Asendia UK.
Indian firm Falcon Autotech supplyied the sortation solution, and UK based WSS providing engineering and technical design oversight as well as installing the system. Asendia then worked with Dorchester-based Loop Technologies, which specialises in customised robotics.
All parcels are delivered to the centre and loaded onto one of the infeed belts. An automated overhead scanner then captures barcode details and an image of the label. The weight is then added from the inline scales and the data is shared via an API with the Asendia system, to enable carrier selection and label generation, mainly through the proprietary carrier label library which Asendia has developed.
The Asendia system processes the label details while the parcel travels up to the robotic over-labelling cell. The robotic cell scans every parcel and creates a 3D image which includes the exact location of every barcode on the parcel. It then checks with the Asendia system to see whether a final mile label is required. This can be done for parcels and packets of different shapes, sizes and materials. The label is generated and printed in either 6×4 or A5 format and the robot applies it directly over the original, ensuring the label is placed within the boundaries of the parcel and taking into consideration the parcel shape. Customs paperwork can also be printed as well if needed. The parcel then enters the cross-belt sorter which is designed to handle all retailer parcel types.
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The ‘DIMS tower’ captures essential dimensions, takes a photo, and scans the final mile label – required to complete routing and determine which outfeed to sort the parcel to. Parcels are allocated to the correct chute and drop into either a bag or pallet box. Each chute position is designed to facilitate sortation to bags, magnums, cages or pallet boxes to provide flexibility and future proof the design. Once full, the chute auto-closes and the pallet or bag is prepared for outbound shipment. The barcodes for every package are linked to a unique container ID, enabling increased visibility and automated data processing.
For more information, visit www.asendia.com
