Cascade is 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 food and beverage industries, 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 Handlers are 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 RapidSync^TM. This option is now available on select models, offering improved handling speed, precision, energy effciency 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, which saves energy as no re-synching is required.

Cascade RapidSync™: Speed & Precision

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-Pulls offer 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 Picker is 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.

Handling At Volume

One common challenge among all industries, and especially in food and beverage, is the need to handle MORE. Increasing demand means that you need the right Cascade tools to scale up. Carton Clamps are a powerful attachment for achieving high throughput with a variety of load types. Hydraulic or all-electric Carton Clamps provide the ability to handle a wide range of low, medium and high density products including consumer paper products, packaged foods, boxed beverages, crates and more. When combined with Cascade's easy-to-use damage reduction system, Hydraulic Force Control (HFC), Carton Clamps automatically adapt clamp force to the load weight so drivers don't have to worry about accommodating varying types of product. HFC prevents over-clamping and damaging the load, or under-clamping and potentially dropping the load, both of which could result in costly product damage.

Cascade Telescopic Forks and Cascade-Kooi Reachforks (depending on your region) provide easily adjustable fork length, making them a great choice for dual-pallet loading and handling of variable length pallets. With hydraulic and manual options available, operators are able to adjust fork length to achieve proper load support. They also increase the versatility of conventional forklifts by allowing double-deep racking to increase storage density and maximize space utilization.

For beer, wine, and spirits industries, our Rotators and Forward Bin Dumpers allow you to easily manage grapes, hops, or grains. For applications further down the supply chain, we offer Barrel Handlers and Keg Handlers, with models that can handle up to 36 empty barrel kegs at once, perfect for making easy work of these unique load types.

Attachments for Anything: Your Swiss Army Knife

With an extensive catalog of forks and attachments, there's always more to Cascade. Other food and beverage application solutions, such as the 3H Paper Roll Clamp and small-size Carton Clamps are great options for handling packaging rolls or containers of raw materials. Designed for walkie pallet trucks and walkie stackers, these small attachments add versatility and eliminate the need for manual handling. Smart solutions like our Weigh Forks utilize fork scales to track weights of individual loads and offer other special functions like piece counting. In addition, our Sensor Forks enable incredibly precise handling with a fork tip-embedded camera and sensor suite that communicate via WiFi to a truck-mounted display. This enhanced visibility can reduce the risk of costly product damage and increase productivity in warehouses with low visibility, such as low-light environments or when using high racking.

Whether you're moving canned goods, kegs, pallets or boxes, Cascade can help. No matter the application challenges of the food and beverage industry, Cascade is committed to staying ahead of the curve and flexible in order to meet our customers' needs with the forks, attachments, and accessories for your application. Our experienced sales team is always available for consultation to find a solution that is best for you and your business - guaranteed. We invite you to contact Cascade today and get started with your next success story.