When, back in June 2005, The Orkney Herring Company Ltd came to choose a conveyor for the upgrade and expansion of their ingredients handling system, Ken Sutherland, their Managing Director confirms, "We saw the Spiroflow advertisement, concluded that an Aero-Mechanical Conveyor was a match for what we wanted".

The Orkney Herring Company, employs 21 people, was founded in 1987 by Ken & Mary Sutherland and is based in the ancient fishing port of Stromness, Orkney, Scotland. Over the years the company has developed into the UK's largest producer of Sweet Cured Herring.

Spiroflow solutions

The Aero-Mechanical Conveyor and the holding bin were installed as part of a systems upgrade to automate the loading of the ingredients into a mixer.

We supplied a 4 metre long 'Spiroflow' Aero- Mechanical Conveyor that operates vertically and has an integral sack tip feed hopper. It is used to transfer sacks of sugar into the holding hopper that feeds the mixer in which the various sauces and marinades are produced. In total, Orkney Herring manufacture 10 different sauces and the new, automatic system has both improved quality and increased productivity.

The bags of sugar are manually emptied into the Aero-Mechanical Conveyor’s feed hopper. Typically, 2 tonnes of sugar are loaded into the holding hopper via the conveyor every second day. According to Ken Sutherland, "It takes no time at all." Given that the Aero-Mechanical Conveyor is rated at 10,000 kg/ hr, this is no surprise!

The 'Spiroflow' Aero-Mechanical Conveyor supplied to Orkney Herring is of 316 grade stainless steel construction. The integral feed hopper has a mesh grill to enable bags of material to be opened and tipped with ease. There is a lid to prevent the ingress of tramp items which the conveyor is not in use.

Mr Sutherland concludes, "We were very impressed by the technical support we received from Spiroflow and we have been very satisfied with the performance of the equipment since".