Fully Flexible Fruit and Vegetable Mixing Line.

The Challenge:

Historically the company had been using a labour intense system of 43 personnel, with a process that was highly prone to operator error where the wrong fruit and vegetable mix was being unloaded in the wrong bunker, resulting in high product wastage due to spoiling. Our fruit and vegetable mixing line was designed specially for the client to meet their exact needs and reduce product giveaway.

Our Solution:

We introduced a fully PLC controlled operating system which was designed to reduce human error, ensure accuracy in product feed and which totally resolved the issues of wastage, inaccuracies and the need for human intervention.

A brand-new line was introduced with a tipper system on rails which fed 10 bunkers.  This included the optional use of a cluster buster which ensured that IQF product was metered out on load cells to a central collation conveyor.  This ‘accurate mix’ was then fed through a mixing drum to either bulk store for future use of direct to the distribution system for immediate online packing.

Results:

The return on this £1 million investment was just 8 months and the client continues to enjoy the benefit of a fully flexible mixing line, handling frozen vegetables and fruit that overcomes the ongoing inefficiency issues.