Potato Review

60 POTATO REVIEW NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019 MACHINERY Six-row topper takes centre stage Visitors to this year’s Midlands Machinery Show At Newark Showground on November 20th and 21st will be among the rst to see Scotts PrecisionManufacturing’s Trinity 6000 six row topper. e Trinity 6000 features front and rear- mounted cutting units, to give balance both in the eld and on the road. It has been ttedwith shear plates to help achieve ne chopping of the haulm. e wide range of ail lengths ensures good suction in the rowbottoms. Scotts utilises a oating parallelogramaction on the rear units to allow each topper unit tomove freely up and down over varying terrain. e company o ers the option of a hydraulic control upgrade, which gives the driver precise control of the rear unit’s cutting height from inside the cab. As well as the Trinity 6000, Scotts will also be showing visitors its Evolution Separator, the harvesting machine which removes clod, stones, haulm and loose soil from a wide range of vegetables, at the show. 2019 has been a record-breaking year for Scotts, with sales of its toppers and Evolution up 35% year on year. Managing Director Derek Scott said: “We’ve just celebrated the company’s 25th birthday, and we’re delighted to be able to say that 2019 has been an excellent year for us. We are extremely grateful to all our customers who have placed orders with us and looking forward to bringing the year to a close in style.” AVR Falcon 1800 receiving hopper for medium-sized agricultural holdings AVR’s new Falcon receiving hopper for export markets and medium-sized farms, the AVR Falcon 1800, can easily control the capacity of a two-row trailed harvester and is designed to be transported in a standard truck trailer or in a container. With its 4-metre long bunker bottom and 1.85 metre wide roller set, the Falcon 1800 is the smaller version of the Falcon 24-45 and 24-60. It offers the option to choose for an additional pre-grader roller set so different products can be sorted in size during storage or processing. The distance between the rollers is adjustable from 20mm to 65mm. The distance between the cleaning rollers is hydraulically adjustable from 5 mm to 45 mm. e drop height from bunker bottom to roll set is adjustable in combination with the angle of the roller set. If intensive cleaning is required, a higher drop height can be created by attening the roller set. e incised lling rubber and the double entry rubbers ensure a good connection between the tipper and the receiving hopper, which prevents product from spilling out. Solid side walls are mounted to the left and right of the bunker oor, to ensure a large bu er volume. The PU-spiral cleaning rollers are made of polymer and are gentle on the crop. Solid bunker floor structure is composed of a cloth floor mounted on heavy duty chains. The bunker is hydraulically driven by a hydro motor mounted on a reduction gear unit. The floor speed is continuously adjustable from 0.5 to 6.5 metres per minute. Flow transfer chute softens the blow Haith’s patent-pending Pro-Flow Transfer Chute has been put on general sale following testing at several UK sites in recent months. Reports state that it dramatically reduces bruising and damage to potatoes, carrots and other sensitive produce when moving from one conveyor to another. e new product creates a trampoline e ect by tensioning a loop of PVC material between two stainless steel tie rods. is creates an air pocket which cushions the crop as it is transferred. e cushioning e ect created by Haith eliminates the bruising that can occur with gravity transfer. While steel chutes can be padded, they are still subject to wear and when the soft landing detaches, foreign body contamination can occur. Haith’s transfer chute can be tted to conveyors and machines, such as even ows and box llers, with Haith’s design engineers considering the belt speed, drive roll diameter, drop height and produce type to tailor each chute to precise needs of each application. David Haith, engineering director of Haith Group, said: “ e best innovations are often the simplest but can make a huge di erence. e Haith Pro-Flow Transfer Cushion may look simple, but its development has taken a lot of time and calculation.” He added: “Many packers are now employing optical graders with multiple outlets, up to 12 in some cases, to satisfy the increased demand for uniform sizing and appearance in the end pack. e Haith Pro-Flow Transfer Cushion ensures that the vast majority of the crop meets the end customer’s requirement in terms of appearance. We will be incorporating the Pro-Flow Transfer Chute into all of our lines from now on and are looking at how we can retro t it into existing systems.”