PolFarm, Phase 2

Tong Engineering has completed a second installation for Polish fruit and vegetable producer, Polfarm, this time with a  large-scale carrot washing and handling facility, capable of handling 40 tons of crop per hour.

The custom built stainless steel carrot washing, sizing and processing line incorporates some of the largest washing and cooling equipment manufactured by Tong Engineering, including a 41 foot long, 33,069 lbs capacity wet hopper which offers effective presoaking of carrots prior to washing.

At the infeed of the new carrot line, a high capacity Tong Storemaker hopper-dirt eliminating system with Tong’s market leading EasyClean separator, offers bulk unloading of the company’s carrot crop, and effective removal of soil and stems from carrots prior to the washing process.

The carrot washing line begins with a 40 ton per hour cyclone destoner followed by the large presoak tank which feeds two 16ft long stainless steel barrel washers, four polishers and a large fruit and vegetable Hydro-Cooler which cools crop for increased longevity and shelf-life. Carrots are sized by diameter by a series of Tong’s lift roller sizers, and also by length with a number of vibrating length sizers, before they are transferred for packing.

Michał Gulczyński of Polfarm commented: “We have worked with Tong Engineering through our local dealer, HTech, over recent years to upgrade our vegetable handling processes in order to minimize labor requirements as well as increasing output. We started by updating our washing and sizing facilities for our celeriac and parsley root crops with a complete line from Tong, and further to the success of this line, proceeded with a second line from Tong for our carrot crop.”

“Our new Tong carrot line is now up and running, and processes up to 40 tons of carrots per hour, so it really has to stand up to demand! With the increased capacity that the new line offers, we are able to process more crop per hour, meaning running and labor costs are significantly reduced whilst output is increased. Not only that, the new washing lines are very easy to maintain which saves our operators a lot of time.”

Charlie Rich, export sales manager for Tong, continued; “Having worked with Polfarm on their previous celeriac and parsley root handling project, we were able to fully understand the company’s requirements for the new carrot handling facility. We worked closely with Michal and our dealer, HTech, to design a line that incorporates sizing, washing, polishing and cooling within a compact and efficient line.”

“The new carrot line at Polfarm was installed and commissioned in line with the company’s key carrot processing season, and with dealer HTech closeby, Polfarm have a local contact for any future service or sales requirements.”