Pacepacker has designed a fully mobile palletising system in its Blu-Robot (second user) range to enable British potato producer Belmont Farms to improve the efficiency and appearance of its palletised product.
According to Pacepacker, the installatin of the Blu-Robot system was conditional on being able to operate anywhere required on the customer’s 13-mile long farm, handling an annual crop of about 1000 tonnes of potatoes packed in 25kg bags.
The staffing level of the palletising operation has been reduced from three people to two, while also conforming to stricter manual handling legislation.
At the same time, the Pacepacker palletising solution’s capacity to handle around 300-400 tonnes of potatoes per week also allows Belmont Farms plenty of expansion potential in the future.
“When designing a heavy mobile system which incorporates a 2,500kg palletising robot, key considerations include safety and ease of transportation,” says Pacepacker’s business development manager Paul Wilkinson.
“Taking into account weight and footprint restrictions, we mounted the Blu-Robot palletiser, pick and infeed conveyors, control system and perimeter guarding onto a heavy-duty support frame in such a way that it could be easily transported between the farm’s two potato stores using a fork lift truck to load it onto the farms trailer.”
Potatoes are graded, weighed and filled automatically into the paper sacks, which are stitched, closed on an automatic line and conveyed into the Pacepacker infeed and onto the pick conveyor, which feeds the Pacepacker Blu-Robot.
www.pacepacker.com
