Scottish veg processor automates sprout crate loading operation26 March 2020
Vegetable processor Drysdales has automated its sprout crate loading operation by investing in a Brillopak ‘UniPAKer’ robotic cell.
The adoption is said to have already yielded a return on investment through its ability to consistently load bags of sprouts into crates at speeds in excess of 75 packs per minute with minimal manual intervention.
Ian McLachlan, farming & facilities director at Drysdales, says: “No-one else is using a machine like this to pack sprouts into crates; this investment fits with our business philosophy of harnessing innovation in farming and production methods in order to stay at the top of our game and deliver the best quality produce and service to our customers. We haven’t yet placed an order for a second robotic crate packer but if and when we do, it will be with Brillopak.”
Located in the Scottish Borders, Drysdales grows 50,000 tonnes of fresh vegetables – mainly swedes, sprouts and leeks – a year for British supermarkets. It supplies sprouts year round. The firm embarked on the project to install a new fully automated sprout packing line at the start of 2019. The line would comprise a vertical bagging machine, metal detector, check-weigher and crate packing system, all located on a mezzanine floor.
“On all of our lines, we were relying on manual labour to pack bags of sprouts into crates. However, with Brexit, we foresee a potential labour issue. The time was right to invest in a machine that could perform this task,” explains McLachlan.
One of the challenges of automating this operation was the number of possible pack and crate configurations. Sprouts are packed in a variety of bag sizes, from 200g up to 500g, and each retailer has their own crate format requirements. “We needed the flexibility to accommodate different pack sizes and crate lengths, whole and half crates, landscape and portrait layouts and different volumes - from 10 packs up to 25 packs to a crate,” adds McLachlan.
Drysdales invited several robotic equipment suppliers to put forward proposals, including Brillopak. Its UniPAKer robotic pick and place cell was originally engineered for packing bags of potatoes and apples into crates. Using a four-arm delta robot on a compact footprint, it will load up to 75 VFFS, tray sealed or flow wrapped packs per minute and is said to be ideal for vegetables, fruits and salad up to 1kg.
“When you are looking to replace labour at the end of a line with robotics, consistency is king, as you have to assume there won’t be anyone there to intervene if the robot stops,” says David Jahn, director at Brillopak. “Our business is built on designing automation solutions that operate at high speed but with consistency; the key to achieving this is precision control over the product throughout.”
The UniPAKer cell has now been running successfully for over eight months at Drysdales’ facility in Cockburnspath, Berwickshire. The system is reportedly unphased by the multiple crate configurations required on this line, and is currently programmed to run 30 different patterns without the need for any tool changeovers.
“We’ve achieved what we set out to at the start of the project and the system does exactly what Brillopak promised it would do,” concludes McLachlan.
Adam Offord
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