Cascadeis able to provide materials handling expertise in a wide range of industries due to our decades of experience across many different applications. Out of all the industries we work in, two words represent some of the most diverse operations and complicated challenges: food and beverage.

"The food and beverage industries are continually challenged by an ever-increasing number of product SKU's. Distribution operations are faced with making continuous adjustments to cope with changing market demands," says Cascade global product manager, Mike Yacks.

"Space utilization, storage density, productivity and efficiency are always top priorities."

Cascade provides comprehensive solutions for operations throughout the foodand beverageindustries, from crop harvesting, processing, all the way through packaging and distribution. As the food and beverage worlds continue to diversify and supply chains grow in complexity, Cascade has the knowledge and innovation to help you sustain growth.

Productivity Through Adaptability

As product offerings in food and beverage become more extensive, there are more types and sizes of pallets that need to be handled - or in some cases, slip sheets instead of pallets. Cascade attachments enable you to stay nimble, extend the capabilities of your forklift, and be ready for any kind of material handling challenge.

Multiple Load Handlersare one popular method to increase efficiency and achieve high throughputs. These attachments provide the option to transport one or multiple pallets at a time, thus minimizing handling cycles and operational costs. The latest development for Multiple Load Handlers is Cascade RapidSyncTM. This option is now available on select models, offering improved handling speed, precision, and ultimately, increased productivity. With RapidSync, fork open/close cycles are faster than ever, up to 35% faster than competitive models. What's more, the forks move perfectly in unison, so operators never have to interrupt their workflow for re-alignment.

Other solutions for improving versatility include Roller Platens and Cascade-Kooi Rollerforks(depending on your region). These tools offer the ability to handle palletless loads as well as regular pallets. They're ideal for receiving and palletizing single stacked floor loads such as wine and spirits, as well as easily sliding beneath slip sheets, super sacks, boxed loads and more. Rollerforks can be easily installed on standard forklifts and don't use hydraulics, meaning operation is simple and maintenance is minimal.

Push-Pullsoffer a hydraulic alternative, allowing slip sheeted unit loads to be pulled from pallets and deposited directly on the floor, or loaded into containers or trailers without pallets in order to save space and minimize shipping and handling costs. Models available include the Mark 55, featuring adjustable platens for handling slip-sheets or pallets from the same truck. This flexibility can help reduce the size of a forklift fleet while improving capacity for handling many load types, including block pallets. Combination Rollerforks/Push-Pull units are also available and offer the best of both solutions.

In beverage distribution, the Cascade Layer Pickeris a powerful tool to help improve speed and satisfy demand. Distributors have to create mixed loads quickly to satisfy their customers, with just in time (JIT) daily shipments being the norm. A Layer Picker handles single layers or multiple layers of both canned & bottled product to easily build mixed-load pallets. One forklift operator can fill orders at greatly increased speed: from approximately 25 layers of product per hour manually to an average rate of 180 layers per hour - even up to 300 layers per hour in some cases. This system streamlines the picking process and increases the speed of pallet production without adding labor.