A unique bag and box unloader to the test one of the UK’s biggest suppliers of potatoes has seen a 33% improvement in efficiency, and 50% decrease in the number of forklifts used.
AKP Group has revealed the enhancements after the two-month test of Haith’s latest QuantaFill box filler in its Elsham facility located in North Lincolnshire.
It was revealed during Potato Expo in January, the QuantaFill comes with an advanced feed conveyor, which delicately layers the crops into buffer bunkers, which is then dropped to the container. Doors for discharge are active and let the crop go to the container, while simultaneously rising as it fills. This ensures that the the container is not elevated, and the equipment does not have to be put under stress, which prevents the possibility of fatigue, or even destruction to the machine as well as the box.
Additional box handling capabilities allow users to put stacks of empty boxes in the machine. The boxes will then be removed from the stack and then transported to the filling unit. After filling then the boxes are put back together so that the operator can take them from the process.
In 1999, third-generation potato farmers Richard Arundel and Bruce Kerr, AKP Group is one of the biggest suppliers of potatoes that handles 150,000 tonnes per year throughout the group. AKP is also among the biggest growers in the UK of potatoes, having the cultivation of 750 acres in its company.
AKP Group has a long-standing partnership with Chris Haith. Its director of operations, Ben Mordue, has been in contact with David as well as Chris Haith during his 30 years working in the field.
This end-toend solution allows AKP to provide all aspects of the potato sector, including food service, retail as well as food production, both within the UK and abroad. Recently, AKP Group has been making use of QuantaFill to QuantaFill to fill 1.2-ton large bags of potatoes imported into one-ton containers to be used by retail packers with a speed of about 60 tons per hour. However, Ben believes that the equipment may be able to run at a higher speed if necessary.
More information is available here: 
Haith
Cow House Lane – Armthorpe
Doncaster, South Yorkshire DN3 3EE
Tel. : +44 (0)1302 831911
Email: [email protected]