Pallet Conveyor for Long Clawson Dairy
Long Clawson Dairy, Melton Mowbray site
Long Clawson Dairy have been making award winning quality cheeses for over a century from their Melton Mowbray facility. Famous for blue stilton, Clawson also produce a variety of other cheeses which can be found in most supermarkets, restaurants and delicatessens.
The Brief
Clawsons required two separate solutions for different parts of their operation. The first system handles 300kg double-stacked stillages of unprepared stilton cheese wheels. It needed a reversible lift to elevate the stillages from the ground floor to a mezzanine production area, where they are emptied, before returning the empty stillages to the ground floor. This area is chilled.
The second system handles finished, palletized cheese. Completed pallets are transported from the end of the production line to a storage/dispatch area in a separate building, connected by a covered bridge. The pallets are then lowered to the ground floor for unloading by forklift at an outfeed point.
Our Solution
For Clawsons’ pre-production system, CSL designed a custom pallet elevator to handle specially designed cheese stillages with a reverse function. Using double-strand chain pallet modules, the system loads stillages at a designated point, protected by forklift bump stops. The stillages index into the lift, which is secured with mesh fencing and light guard sensors. The lift elevates the stillages to the production mezzanine, where they are offloaded onto a pallet turntable and discharged through a light guard for forklift removal. Empty stillages are returned by reversing the system.
In the post-production system, portioned and wrapped cheeses are packed on wooden pallets and moved via a pallet roller conveyor across a covered bridge to the warehouse/dispatch building. The conveyor interacts with a fire shutter, with a gap between modules to allow it to close fully. The shutter system is integrated into the CSL conveyor software to prevent blocking during emergencies. Pallets are then lifted to the ground floor, where they are offloaded for warehouse storage or dispatch preparation.
Clawson praised CSL for professionalism, noting that the pallet system was completed on time and performed exceptionally well during the peak season.
