The Spanish owned rice milling company S&B Herba Foods have two UK processing sites both capable of milling, processing and packing a variety of rice types for the UK and overseas markets.
Their central site located in Fulbourne, Cambridgeshire processes up to 300 tonnes per day, the majority of which is packed into 10+Kg bags. Packing of rice into 10-20Kg bags is currently done using an Umbra Packaging UP1000 automated packing and palletisation line.
Recent trends have seen an increase in demand for smaller pack sizes, S&B Herba Foods therefore made the decision in 2014 to look into adding a second packing line to operate alongside their existing UP1000 to produce pack sizes from 1Kg to 10Kg..
Over the past year S&B Herba Foods have investigated currently available machines capable of handling a wide variety of pre-made small size bags including; gusseted, zip lock and doypack.
CJ Waterhouse Company, acting as the UK agent for Umbra Packaging since January 2014 have been closely involved with the project since its onset. During the tender process CJ Waterhouse have provided local engineering and commercial support to S&B Herba and have helped with the demonstration of Umbra’s capabilities including overseas visits to their manufacture facility in Perugia, Italy.
S&B Herba Foods have now made the decision to purchase an Umbra packaging UP Mini packing line and UPR palletisation line. The machine will provide automated packing of rice into a variety of bag types from 1-10Kg with both heat sealing and stitching closure systems at speeds of up to 2000 bags per hour.
The decision to purchase the Umbra machine over its competitors was made not only due to the performance of the UP Mini and the customers knowledge of the UP1000 model but also because of the local engineering support offered by CJ Waterhouse Company both during the purchase procedure and for ongoing service and maintenance works.
In addition to their assistance in the supply of the Umbra packaging line CJ Waterhouse have also been awarded the contract to design, supply and install the material feed system required for the new packing line.
The existing system feeds rice to the downstream equipment from 8 internal and 3 external silos via a series of conveyors, elevators and routing valves. The new feed system will permit the simultaneous routing of rice to both packing lines using a combination of new and existing conveying equipment.
Both the Feed system and packing lines are currently at design phase with scheduled delivery to S&B Herba Foods at the end of 2015 and start up in January 2016.
For information on materials handling, weighing and process control systems offered by CJ Waterhouse or Umbra Packaging’s range of equipment please do not hesitate to contact us.
Visit the C J Waterhouse Co Ltd website for more information on Small But Perfect Packs for S&B Herba Foods – September 2014