Customer Requirements
The Orkney Herring Company Ltd required a conveyor to upgrade and expand their ingredients handling system.
Ken Sutherland, Orkney Herring’s Managing Director, confirmed, “We saw a Spiroflow advertisement and concluded that an Aero Mechanical Conveyor (AMC) was a match for what we wanted.”
1) With 21 employees, The Orkney Herring Company was founded in 1987 by Ken and Mary Sutherland and is based in the ancient fishing port of Stromness, Orkney, Scotland.
2) Over the years, the company has grown into the United Kingdom’s largest producer of Sweet Cured Herring.
3) In all, Orkney Herring manufactures 10 different kinds of sauces.
Spiroflow Solution
An Aero Mechanical Conveyor (AMC) and a holding bin were installed at Orkney Herring as part of a systems upgrade to automate the loading of ingredients into a mixer.
– A 13’/ 4m long Aero Mechanical Conveyor operates vertically and has an integral bag tip feed hopper.
– The AMC is used to transfer bags of sugar into the holding hopper that feeds the mixer – where all the various sauces and marinades are produced.
– The bags of sugar are manually emptied into the AMC’s feed hopper.
– Typically, two tons of sugar is discharged every other day into the holding hopper by the conveyor.
– The Aero Mechanical Conveyor supplied to Orkney Herring is constructed of 316 Grade stainless steel.
– The integral feed hopper has a mesh grill that enables bags of material to be opened and tipped with ease.
– A lid prevents the ingress of tramp items when the conveyor is not in use.
The Results
The Aero Mechanical Conveyor has improved efficiency within the factory.
Ken Sutherland commented: “We were very impressed with the technical support we received from Spiroflow and have been very satisfied with the performance of the equipment.”
