(1).Freshpack in the Field.

Self Propelled Infield Harvesting/Processing Machine

Emmetts approached Herberts to design and manufacture a mobile self propelled leek packhouse incorporating full harvesting facilities. Nine months later the Emmett team completed their first season with the new system achieving a full “Harvest to Shop Ready” package all within the field. The system incorporates a transfer conveyor spanning over 32 metres and enables a massive three acres a day capacity. A team of fifty Emmett employees operate the mobile monster, with thirty-six harvesting and fourteen in the preparation of the finished product. The system can “fold up” into a road safe transportable width to give a quick field transfer, thus keeping downtime to a minimum.

USP

• Concept discussion to installation in less than 6 months
• Harvest to shop ready infield system
• High capacity processing (3 acres per day)

(2).Largest 'early potato' system in Europe

Potato intake grading line

The amalgamation of growers and marketing companies to form the new Jersey Royal (Potato Marketing) Company resulted in greater demands on existing infrastructure and therefore they required to invest in state of the art grading line to handle the increased volumes. According to Mike Renouard of Jersey Royal (Potato Marketing) Company, Herbert Engineering were appointed as the main supplier due to their innovative solutions, efficient project management, quality manufacturing facility and excellent pack-house experience.

One of the solutions was the unique Herbert designed automatic changing grading screens which save hours a week in labour and enables Jersey Royal to respond to market conditions quicker as well as the obvious health and safety benefits (system would take three men 20 minutes, now takes one man 2 minutes). The new line can also route selection of crop to one tonne bags, 16/25kilo bags or supermarket trays in seconds, all to different weighing machines.  Maintenance and throughput have been a hot topic on the design agenda too, some other key features include quick release roller inspection tables making cleaning and maintenance much easier and electronic variable speed conveyors and inspection rollers resulting in maximum throughput of the small crop”.

USP’s

• Fast automatic interchange facility saving labour and time
• Flexible routing of crop into various packaging
• Quick release roller inspection for easier cleaning and maintenance

Related Products

• Vertical Eject high angle box tipper
• Receiving Hopper
• Cleaning Systems
• Automatic Interchangeable Grading screen modules
• Easy clean roller inspection table
• Bag filling lowerators
• Even flow hoppers
• Conveyors and elevators
• Rising base bag filler

(3).Savings from Automation

Automated onion tray handling System

Packing Specialists Stourgarden installed automation on their packing lines six years ago and have not looked back since.  Stourgarden is a dedicated supplier of pre-packed onions to Tesco, and proprietors Bill & John Rix operate this business alongside their farming concerns based in Great Horksley, Essex.  Herbert’s first project with Stourgarden involved the design and installation of two new pre-pack lines which included, tippers, top / tailer machines and inspection conveyors. Automated tray handling for these two lines was an integral part of this project and an empty tray de-nester and associated conveyors increased throughput and enabled unlined or lined trays (via an OKI tray liner) to be delivered to the weigh heads, quality checked and then dispatched to an automatic layer palletiser.

In 2005 Herberts added another link in the automation chain with a second tray delivery system which conveys unlined trays to two new polybagging lines. Foresight by the Herbert Engineering design team ensured that the original tray de-nester had ample capacity to cope with the demands from these two extra lines. The trays from the polybag lines are filled manually and the design of the interface between machine and man was critically ergonomic for maximum efficiency and long-term operator comfort. The benefits of the automation system are evident with reduced manual handling and  labour. In addition the space-spacing system has allowed  empty and full trays to be stored separately away from the operators.  Bill Rix, Proprietor comments “Six years ago we made a serious decision to invest in a considerable upgrade of our packing facilities to accommodate future growth and engineer more efficiencies into our system. Our adoption of the automation at this point has proved a good investment over the last five years  and is evident in the fact that we continue to develop and enhance the equipment”.

Later this year, Herberts will be installing a state-of-the-art onion intake grading system to accommodate Stourgardens growth. The system is capable of grading 25 tonnes per hour and is equipped with automated interchanging grading modules which allow a large range of different size bands to be accommodated with minimal downtime.

USP’s

• High capacity grading with automated interchange modules
• State of the art automated tray handling lines
• Space saving designs for greater efficiency

Related Products

• Receiving hopper
• Interchangeable grading screen modules
• Inspection Tables
• GF2 Box Filler
• Vertical Eject High Angle Box Tippers
• Tray Handling

(4).Unique innovations to meet Greenvale’s tough demands

How can fresh packers maintain their position in the UK potato
market? A recent interview with Greenvale AP revealed that pushing the boundaries of technology and increasing performance demands was one
key way in which to continually meet demands of their customers.

It was the encouragement by their customer Sainsbury to innovate for better solutions that prompted them to contact Herbert Engineering, a company that have now delivered technology built to Greenvales exacting specifications for over 12 years.

Greenvale presented the challenge to provide higher output and other new concepts to improve efficiencies. The two organisations worked closely together to deliver a new intake grading line which is split into five key areas resulting in faster unloading, improved cleaning and destoning, greater flexibility of sizing using multi screens and Accupack (infra-red) grading (up to nine sizes at any one time) and fully automated box handling. The result is that it is now capable of doing exactly what is needed.

According to David Baxter, General Manager for Greenvale AP, Market Drayton “We set regular challenges to Herbert Engineering that really push innovation and technology for gentle handling of potatoes to ensure we provide the very best quality produce to our retailers. We wouldn’t have approached another engineering company to set these kind of engineering demands and tight deadlines and ended up with a totally new machine in such a short timescale and been so pleased with the results”.

He further comments “One of the main changes that Greenvale has noticed is that they now have a highly efficient and calm working environment where output has significantly increased with controlled grading giving exceptional throughput of 20-28tph. Working conditions have also improved and a new simple user friendly interfaceis located in a central cab located in the middle of the system giving excellent viewing of the production area”.

Jo Herbert, Marketing Manager for Herbert Engineering states that “there have been a number of significant changes that have taken place in potato fresh packing some of these have had a dramatic impact on their machinery design. These include: labour costs and ongoing requirements for pension provisions; manual lifting regulations being enforced; litigation risk becoming more prevalent with the onset of increased claims for repetitive strain injuries; environmental constraints; more training to ensure staff competence and safety; and a reduction in staff numbers”

In 1989 Herbert Engineering were Greenvale’s first choice for potato handling systems, now in 2004 Greenvale choose the same partner. David Austin from Herbert’s sums it up: “As a company we have moved with the industry and our customers, driving technology changes together and incorporating the forward approach we have to research and development at Herberts. We are proud to be the preferred partner of potato handling systems for a major fresh pack supplier line Greenvale fifteen years on.”