January 2007 

Aja TDW Selector Scale solves Fixed Weight retail packing of grapes for 3 major UK
importers - packers

More and more pre-packed fruit and vegetables  appear on the supermarket shelves  today FIXED WEIGHT – FIXED PRICE – FIXED and/or VARIABLE COUNT.  As a result packers and producers are having to find ways of  weighing  and packing efficiently at speed with the minimum of Give Away and waste.

One of the more challenging and particularly difficult products is grapes. Packed as 2 bunches; both white, both black or mixed black and white in fixed weight punnets or clams. Grapes are extremely delicate, prone to shatter and do not lend themselves to automation. However if not prepared and weighed correctly the Give Away can be extremely high with a direct impact on bottom line profitability.

Historically 5 – 10 % plus! Give Away has been and is the norm for many packers.   However as 3 major UK Supermarket packers have found Give Away of as low as only a 2 or 3 grams per pack can be achieved by using the Aja TDW “Selector” Multihead Scale

Aja TDW “Selector Scale” is compact, portable very robust (all stainless, washdown) and extremely User Friendly. In fact the operative doesn’t have to even think, just simply follow coloured  lights telling them which bunches to pick up and match together to make the best pack weight combination. Speeds of 12 – 15 packs per minute are easily achievable with 2 operators. It is such a simple machine, it really needs to be to seen to be believed.

One operator places the a pre prepared bunch on each of the 12 the pans and 2 bunches already in clams or punnets  on the end pans. Instantly the other operator is told which bunch matches which clam with the best give away.  In a split second Selector Scale has analysed all the hundreds of different bunch combinations to give the best 2.  This process continues as bunches are added and removed. You don’t even have to wait for all the pans to be re loaded. If one operator makes a mistake there are fail safe features built in to the software to ensure no mistakes occur.

For further information or a packhouse demonstration-trial please contact the Aja sales team.