Potato packing goes fully automated

The increased adoption of automation in the UK potato industry witnessed by Goplasticpallets.com - the Responsible Plastic Pallet Company - has been largely based around the systems developed and implemented by Deprez Handling Solutions using its GoPalletBox 1311S 3R, supposedly Europe's largest plastic pallet box.

Deprez boasts over 35 years in the development of integrated handling solutions. The company launched its very first automated handling solution back in 2008, which quickly doubled capacity. As the retail food sector is one of Deprez' main focus areas, it was noticed that potato packers especially were calling for immediate storage of their goods prior to packing. 

Today, potato harvest is sorted and stored based on quality or size, which requires that some goods are temporarily stored during the packaging process. This storage must be hygienic, robust and offer maximum filling capacity to make the best use of available warehouse space.

The plastic pallet box has a capacity of 1,400 litres and is made of impact-resistant, chemical-resistant and food-safe HDPE. With a net weight of 69 kilograms in perforated and 72 kilograms in closed design, it is characterised by high payloads of up to 7,000 kilograms when static, 2,000 kilograms on the go and 1,000 kilograms when used in high-racking.

Non-slip rubber profiles on the upper edges of the pallet box allow up to seven boxes to be safely stacked on top of each other, a feature which helps optimise warehouse storage space. In terms of retail food applications, the pallet boxes are extremely versatile and can be used for cold storage in temperatures from minus 30 to plus 50 degrees Celsius.

After harvesting and washing, the potatoes are sorted by an optical sorting system according to their size and placed in the plastic pallet boxes. The loaded boxes are then either automatically stored in the high-bay or forwarded directly to the packaging line, depending on their destined use. With subsequent use, a system-integrated orbiter box tipper automatically empties the boxes into the corresponding packaging lines.

Johan Deprez, founder and CEO of Deprez said: “Our solution would simply not exist in this form without the plastic pallet box. Now, whenever we plan an automated solution for a new customer, we recommend it; in fact we’ve already implemented 30 installations with this pallet box.”

Source: www.shdlogistics.com

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