UK: New products at Fruit Logistica as Herbert celebrates 40 years

UK-based Herbert Engineering, the leaders in handling systems for the agricultural and fresh pack industries, are kicking off their milestone 40th anniversary year with a stand at this year’s Fruit Logistica, where they will be offering visitors the chance to find out more about their innovative new product launches for 2012. The show takes place from 8th - 10th February in Berlin and Herbert Engineering will be showcasing two of their eagerly awaited products in Hall 3.1, stand D-11.

The first of these products is the Herbert Ultra-Wash, the latest potato washer from Herbert that allows the crop to be effectively cleaned without submersion in dirty water. Born out of a joint development project with leading potato packers Greenvale who tasked Herbert with the challenge to develop a specialist washer to complement their award winning Cascade Water Treatment System. The Ultra-Wash works in conjunction with a continual water treatment system, which feeds in large volumes of clean, cool water. This allows the crop to be washed without being submerged in increasingly dirty water.

The system works by blasting the tubers with jets of water as they are rotated.
The potatoes are gently tipped into water and subjected to a ‘whirl pool’ type pre-clean as they are moved forward by adjustable jets. Stones and clods are immediately separated while sludge and debris are removed out of the side of the system, as the potatoes are flumed into the barrels. A jet wash provides a final clean and excellent bacterial hygiene, before passing over a highly efficient drying system.

Herbert are also showcasing the Variclean, their new cleaner separator, which has been designed to work with all of Herbert’s Contractor grading systems, or as a standalone machine. It incorporates the very latest in technological developments that combine improved cleaning of crops with gentler handling for reduced crop damage.

The Variclean features four soft foam filled plastic fluted rollers and four ebonite or steel clod rollers. The speed of the rollers can be varied, with separate speed and height controls for the clod rollers, which can also be easily reversed.

Each clod roller rotates around the circumference of the adjacent fluted roller. This unique 'constant geometry' design maintains a consistent gap and pressure in every cleaning position.

Herbert are also celebrating both their product launches and their anniversary with a ‘Win an iPad’ competition, which visitors to Fruit Logistica can enter by visiting their stand.

With 40 years of industry expertise and a highly talented experienced staff, Herbert is a leading expert in British and European post-harvest root crop operations. Marketing director Jo Herbert, said: “Ensuring that quality comes as standard is a promise that we deliver throughout our business and, at Herbert, our priority is to provide a first class solution from concept through to completion whatever the changing need of the market demands.”

“This year, we’re incredibly proud to be celebrating the 40th anniversary of the formation of the company this year and we look forward to welcoming old and new friends to our stand. Herbert has been engineering solutions for growers and packers for four decades and today has earned its place as one of the world’s foremost companies in innovative handling and packing solutions.”