All those frozen foods, subscription meal kits, and refrigerated foods and beverages that U.S. consumers increasingly buy, along with pharmaceuticals that need to be kept cold, equate to a need for more cold storage warehousing. Analyst firm Grandview Research pegs the cold storage warehousing sector to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 13.5% from 2021 through 2028.
Some cold storage DCs may opt for automated storage and retrieval systems or other automation to minimize the need for lift trucks. But for many cold storage DCs, electric lift trucks are relied upon to handle goods.
Cold storage is a challenging environment because of the way the cold negatively impacts the normal capacity of a conventional lead acid battery and issues related to condensation when trucks move between cold storage and ambient parts of the facility for battery swaps and charging.
Read the full article in Modern Material Handling
