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Ishida turnkey expertise secures major order at Whitby Seafoods

11/01/2000

With annual growth averaging 25-30% since it was first established 15 years ago, Whitby Seafoods, a leading supplier of scampi and other IQF seafood products to the foodservice industry, needed an efficient and accurate automated packing operation.

Having examined various alternatives, the company chose Ishida Europe to project-manage a turnkey installation for the automated weighing and packing of a range of products including scampi, plaice goujons, prawns and shrimps into bag sizes from 100g to 454g.

The new system replaced a manual packing operation with a linear weigher dispensing product into pre-formed bags. Key benefits for Whitby Seafoods are increased efficiency and greatly reduced product give-away, thanks to the accuracy of the multihead weigher compared to the linear model.

“We knew exactly what we wanted to achieve but we lacked the in-house knowledge and experience of multihead weighers to ensure that we got the project right first time,” explains the Company’s Operations Director John Pick.

“We went to Ishida because of their proven track record and we have been delighted with the solution they provided and the speed with which the new line was installed, taking little more than a weekend to complete and commission it.”

Key elements of the new packaging operation comprise an Ishida CCW-NZ-214W-S/30-WP multihead weigher, a Sandiacre TG320L Bagmaker and an Ishida DACS-030-WP checkweigher, which has been incorporated alongside an existing metal detector.

Product is taken from Whitby Seafoods’ existing spiral freezer, along an incline conveyor to a vibratory cross feeder, which includes a special slatted section, the “crumb tray”, which removes any excess crumb coating prior to weighing.

The product then travels up a flighted elevator to the top of the multihead weigher. This 14 head model from Ishida’s NZ range is a waterproof (WP) version of the weighing machine, specifically designed for fresh and frozen applications, and incorporates 3 litre weigh hoppers, which are large enough to handle the longer shapes of the plaice goujons.

After bagging, the packs undergo a final weight check on the Ishida checkweigher and pass through the metal detector to a rotary packing table.

The system ensures that product is weighed and packed and returned to cold storage as quickly as possible. The speed and flexibility of the operation has also enabled the company to easily handle any additional, last-minute rush orders alongside its daily planned production. Set up and product changeovers are carried out at the touch of a button using the weigher’s extensive pre-set memory.