Axiom Sliding Shoe Sorter for DDC; a distribution division of Romanian book publisher, RTC

Axiom, the sole UK company to manufacture sliding shoe sortation systems, has launched a pioneering new machine, the Axiom SS4. The company claims that the innovative design of the SS4 will make the machine extremely cost effective, offering a saving of at least 70% on a cross belt equivalent.

What makes the SS4 different

Designed and constructed at Axiom’s headquarters in Tamworth, this powerful sliding shoe sorter features 4” aluminium slats making it capable of achieving high throughput rates of up to 120m/minute, even with very small products. It is particularly valuable for gentle handling of fragile goods.

Built for reliability and safety

Built to a high standard of engineering, the robust SS4 offers years of trouble-free operation. It can be configured for either single sided or dual-sided sort applications with divert angles that can vary from 20 to 35 degrees. The sorter also features many integral safety features which, if necessary, immediately halt the machine.

Automated labelling and sorting

The first machine has already been delivered to DDC, a distributing division of leading book publisher, RTC of Romania. Axiom has recently installed the sorter into DDC, together with two labelling machines; a combination which has transformed the company’s working practices, enabling high speed sorting of books.

Irina Iordache is Director General of DDC, she comments, “Previously we labelled and sorted our books manually, but increased business meant that it was necessary to invest in an automated system which could reliably deal with the greater volume of books that we now need to process and distribute.

Choosing Axiom’s SS4 over German and Polish suppliers

“We investigated a number of potential suppliers in Germany, Poland and the UK and awarded the contract to Axiom because we were impressed by the performance capability of their recently launched, SS4 sliding shoe sorter.”

Product dimensions automatically read inline

At DDC the sliding shoe sorter is limited to a speed of 70m per minute in line with the company’s chosen workflow process. As they enter the sorter, the books are automatically tracked through the system, and the height and length of each book scanned. The software then allocates the correct number of sort shoes to efficiently divert each book into one of 20 destination bins, 10 located on each side of the system.

The results for DDC

“Our new sorter is fully operational and we are able to label and sort a much larger quantity of books than we could before, up to 6,000 per hour,” Iordache concludes.

“This has greatly improved our level of service; increasing accuracy and significantly reducing the time it takes to process the books through the plant.”