QuantaFill box filler boosts AKP Group

Leading potato supplier AKP Group has reported major performance improvements on the back of a technology trial.

The group revealed the improvements after undertaking a two-month trial of Haith’s new QuantaFill box filler at its Elsham site in north Lincolnshire. It reported a 33 per cent increase in efficiency and a 50 per cent reduction in forklift movements.

Unveiled at Potato Expo in January, the QuantaFill from Haith features an in-feed conveyor that gently layers the crop into a buffer bunker, which is then lowered into the box. Active discharge doors then open to transfer the crop into the box, simultaneously raising as it fills.

The process ensures that the weight of the box is never lifted and the machine is not put under pressure, which eliminates fatigue or prevents damage to both the machine and the box.

The additional box-handling functionality allows the operator to place stacks of empty boxes into the machine. The boxes are then automatically destacked and transported to the filling module. After being filled, the boxes are restacked for the operator to remove from the line.

AKP handles 150,000 tonnes of potatoes a year across the group, and grows from 750 hectares in its own farming business.

”We wanted to be quicker and more accurate when filling boxes,” explained AKP’s operations director Ben Mordue. “We can have up to 25,000 one-tonne boxes on the ground at any one time, and I might need to fill one thousand of them in a day with the smallest forklift movements possible.

”And, of course, I want to be kind to the potatoes; I don’t want them damaged. So, from a conversation with David and Chris [Haith], they developed the QuantaFill and asked me if I’d like to put it through its paces.

“Having used the QuantaFill now for about eight weeks, I can say we are a third faster, maybe more, and we are using one less forklift than before, so it’s a significant improvement.”