Case Study
CF Fertilisers
Mobile Connectivity Improvement Project
CF Fertilisers Manufacturing Facility, Ince
CF Fertilisers is the UK’s premier fertiliser manufacturer and a major supplier of process chemicals and utilities.
As well as CFF being the UK’s leading supplier of Nitrogen products to selected industrial markets and applications, it is also committed to British agriculture, making investment in production capacity and advice and services fundamental to the company’s success.
CF Fertilisers is a wholly owned subsidiary of CF Industries Holdings, Inc., Deerfield, Illinois.
Ince Head Office & Manufacturing Plant
1
Acres
1000
Employees
1
m
tonnes of fertiliser produced annually
The Challenge
Clarus was approached to provide mobile signal in a large storage facility, which suffered from little to no mobile signal throughout.
This led to a number of challenges for the workforce, including the use of sim-enabled tablet devices on forklift terminals, which are required for key operations. Without a 4G connection, these devices could not operate.
CF Fertilisers required a cost-effective solution that could be deployed quickly. A number of different options had been considered by the onsite team, however due to the size of the space and the number of users, our in-vehicle repeater system was the best solution.
“The testing has been really positive, the application connectivity and processing has been really rapid, even in areas where we don’t dispatch and have a lot of overhead obstacles. We are still testing at the moment but from a personal perspective – I’m really pleased.”
FMD Products Handling Day Supervisor
The Solution
Following a detailed survey and consultation period the Clarus technical team designed a highly bespoke solution suitable for the facility.
Instead of the high costs associated with a large in-building solution, the Clarus engineers made the suggestion to install in-vehicle repeaters, providing targeted coverage for the tablets. This saved CF Fertilisers a six-figure sum compared to other solutions.
The team installed two Vehicle Mobile Repeater units into the forklift terminals, with a plan for a further rollout to all 14 forklift terminals.
A bespoke high gain donor antenna was used on the roof of the vehicles, cabled to a repeater which was hard-wired for power with a window-mounted server antenna to provide the signal.
This project leverages our licence-exempt Vehicle Signal Boosters, which benefits from:
✓ 3G / 4G / LTE Voice and Data
✓ Multi-Carrier Support with Carrier Switching
✓ Indoor / Outdoor NEMA 4 Rated
✓ Network Safe
The Results
✓ Each forklift terminal now received full Vodafone 4G voice and data coverage.
✓ The forklift drivers can easily use their 4G enabled tablets which assist with day to day operations.
✓ Employees can now easily communicate with all stakeholders, including head office, local authorities, suppliers, partners and customers.
✓ The team now benefits from health and safety, productivity and operational advantages of being able to use mobile devices on the move.
✓ Six-figure cost saving when compared to other in-building DAS solutions
Our mobile repeater products are licence-exempt and fully meets the regulatory requirements in the UK (Ofcom SI 2018/399) and Ireland (ComReg S.I.No.283 of 2018)
