Since its launch in 2019, the MonstaFill box filler from Tong Engineering has proved invaluable in transforming post-harvest box filling for growers worldwide, from the UK and Ireland, to Australia and the US. And now several new models of the MonstaFill twin-head box filler are in production at Tong’s new purpose-built manufacturing facility, demonstrating its role in bringing real benefits to growers both in reducing labour requirements and increasing throughput.
Built to combine high capacity and gentle box filling, with reduced forklift movements, the MonstaFill box filler ensures a continuous box filling process. Featuring a rubber-lined holding hopper at each end of the machine’s main crop conveyor; once one hopper is full the machine automatically begins to fill the second hopper. Linear actuator-controlled crop lowering chutes ensure careful handling of crop, and when an empty box is presented under the hopper, the MonstaFill detects the box and gently discharges crop to the box.
“The success of the original models of the MonstaFill in our home and export markets has seen further design developments to suit different box sizes and specific customer requirements,” says Richard Knighton, sales manager at Tong Engineering. “The MonstaFill can now be specified to suit 1 and 2 ton boxes, as well as a new Dolav bin model.”
The simple in and out forklift action to remove full boxes and subsequently present empty ones makes for a seamless process; there is no waiting for the forklift and the machine can be easily operated by one forklift.
The MonstaFill can fill boxes to level or weight. Integrated loadcells in the machine’s hopper tanks allow boxes to be quickly and accurately filled to a pre-determined weight, with the latest models featuring a new large digital display for enhanced visibility of the weight in each box.
“We are delighted at how the MonstaFill is performing and its global popularity,” says Knighton, “it is always great to see a new product come into its own. One customer in the UK is achieving throughputs of up to 90 tons per hour when using the MonstaFill with our latest FieldLoad PRO field-loading machine. The MonstaFill has transformed their daily throughput capabilities so much that we have just completed manufacture on a further two MonstaFill machines to advance their potato handling operations even further.”
