Oaklands Farm in England
OAKLANDS FARM, UNITED KINGDOM
Oaklands Farm, founded in 1957, has continued to develop since then to become an indispensable player in England. In fact, the company is now the largest producer of caged hen eggs, even though they are also investing a large amount in free range and their packing stations.
The company is at the forefront of all the existing technologies in the field and is proud to be the most efficient in England. The Griffiths family has chosen two of the most complete OVOCONCEPT solutions:
To equip the site devoted to washing plastic products the Griffiths brothers opted for our OVOTUNNEL LPI200 plastic pallet and divider washer with the “dirty” products denester at the infeed and the stacker of washed products at the outfeed. This totally automatic machine, designed and manufactured by us, makes it possible to wash 880 articles on average per day* and requires very little handling (infeed and outfeed of pallets only).
*This entirely automated machine makes it possible to wash up to 160 articles/hour.
On the site of the Ruabon packing centre, where 1,500,000 eggs/per day are graded, the finished products (cases and open-top cases of eggs) were previously palletised manually and the pallets film-wrapped by hand. Elwyn and Gareth Griffiths were already convinced of the advantages of automating their production tools and decided to entrust this site’s end of line to Ovoconcept.
Our solution: the OVOPAL 1000 palletisation robot capable of dealing with up to 1000 packages/hour (depending on the references) and an online high rate wrapping machine (pallet film-wrapper). Together they handle half the daily production.
3 lines transport closed or open-top cases from the egg grader (capacity of 180,000 eggs/h). These are firstly stacked if required and then palletised. Two pallet denesters (2 formats possible) automatically present the empty pallets to the robot programmed to manage up to 9 product references to date.
” The flexibility and scalability of the system convinced us. We have now added references to serve our clients better.We can already see that this system will enable us to increase volumes whilst improving the quality of working conditions, finished products and also our productivity!” specifies Elwyn Griffiths
The cherry on the cake: the in-line wrapping machine!
The 3 palletisation lines are in fact connected to a wrapping machine by an entirely automated shuttle on rails. The pallets are film-wrapped automatically. Several programmes are available depending on the references (programmes defined according to the degree of stability of the products on the pallet). Once film-wrapped, the pallets arrive at the end of line at the loading docks and the forklift operators remove them to place them directly in the trucks!
Today the wrapping machine deals with all the pallets exiting the OVOPAL 1000 and can also receive pallets constructed manually and loaded by an operator at the line infeed
Ovoconcept has successfully implemented this complex project; this customised, easy-to-use solution has enabled us to meet market requirements and resolve the very real operational problems. We have now put in place a new standard of efficiency in our industry. The operations of loading eggs into the grader, the opening of cases, grading and packaging, filling of cases, palletisation and film-wrapping are all automated! … An incredible success!” concludes Elwyn with enthusiasm.
