Case Studies
Investing in automation – Alfred G Pearce Limited
(as published in "The Vegetable Farmer" Oct 2010)
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Alfred G Pearce has made considerable investment over the past few years and appointed Projx Services Limited to design and implement solutions to improve on efficiencies, increased yields, reduced labour and improved effluent handling.
Onions
A complete onion peeling and processing plant was installed by Projx Services and Finis. The plant enables Alfred G Pearce to automatically peel up to 24,000 onions per hour and supply fresh whole peel, sliced, and diced product. Rob Allum, Managing Director of Projx Services said “All product is hydrocooled to give Alfred G Pearce a huge technical advantage over their competitors and all waste flows are to a purpose built enclosed area which evenly distributes the waste into the containers.”
Carrots
Within Alfred G Pearces’ intake area, Projx Services installed a custom-built continuous weigh belt with print out facility to monitor the raw material that enters the processing areas. This resulted in giving an accurate record of product that enters the factory.
One of the largest investments was automating the carrot processing plant. Projx Services completed a viability study looking at existing labour, yields and waste. Together Projx Services and Finis designed solution to produce whole peeled, sliced, diced, shredded and baton carrots down more than one packing line at a time. Alfred G Pearce has the flexibility to divert products to different processing options, depending on customers requirements, and all product is metal detected prior to dispatch. The waste then divided into two streams with total waste and usable waste, keeping yields and effluent where they need to be. Controlled centrally with modem links directly to the Finis technicians in Holland, Alfred G Pearce has immediate support if required. Projx Services delivered the project based on minimal downtime; therefore temporary solutions were used during install to enable Alfred G Pearce to satisfy their customers. Simon Pearce, Director of Alfred G Pearce said "The decision to proceed with this project was an easy one as it increased yields, throughputs, processing options, reduced labour and waste, enabling us to remain very flexible and competitive."
High Care
Following many successful previous projects, Alfred G Pearce asked Projx Services to deliver a high care turnkey solution. . As part of the project a new compressed air system and line was delivered. This enables the business to wash, process and pack a whole variety of products using a multihead weigher with a vertical form fill and seal machine. In addition, all products are checkweighed and metal detected before leaving the area.
Investing in Automation
Effluent
With escalating waste management costs, Projx studied the best way to handle the effluent from the whole site. The decided solution was to install a large twin screen waste compactor alongside the existing system to enable the factory to separate the solids from the liquid more efficiently and therefore, reduce their effluent management costs.
