Brillopak PakStation for Worldwide Fruit02 March 2020

International fruit marketing and distribution company Worldwide Fruit has installed a Brillopak semi-automated PakStation for loading crates at its Spalding facility, which is said to have boosted the capacity to load flow wrapped apples into crates while also maintaining product integrity.

The firm, which sources apples, pears, avocados and stone fruit from the UK, New Zealand, South America, South Africa, USA and Europe, has roughly 380 staff across two facilities, where 65 million packs of fruit per year are graded, processed and packaged, ready for distribution.

Last year, the company replaced its crate loading soft touch roller belt system for a Brillopak semi-automated PakStation with the aim of increasing capacity but also strengthening the overall flow of the process by eliminating bottlenecks. The machine is said to relieve these issues and enable more throughput with fewer line stoppages, increasing OEE on the packing line.

Furthermore, the distributor has recently put in another order for a second machine for its Spalding packhouse to load a more varied range of fruit.

“Brillopak were very willing to listen to our specific requirements,” says senior production manager Sam Roberts. “Quality of fruit is important to us and making sure that our product is not damaged during any of the processes. Overall, the semi-automatic packer reduces the issues we had and we saw more throughput on the line with less downtime.”

The packer is ergonomically designed and feeds product to staff at an ideal height and orientation, enabling the team to load at a suitable pace. Because of this, workforce health and injury risks, as well as physical and mental stress levels, are reduced.

A further improvement was the installation of an additional guard sensor, making it safe if an operator needs to go into the machine for maintenance. Brillopak has already fitted the same safety device onto the second PAKStation.

“They’ve listened to recommendations we’ve made and adapted to our needs” adds Roberts. “Worldwide Fruit and Brillopak have worked incredibly well together, which is why we’ve gone back for a second time.”

Adam Offord

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