UK leek packers choose Aja fixed weight retail pack weighing solutions

Aja Ltd. (UK) - Aja have delivered two new ‘profit saving’ weigh packing systems to UK leek packers; both suppliers to major UK Supermarkets. Aja weighing solutions have now become the preferred choice of many of the major prepared pre pack produce & veg Packhouses in the UK.

Packing leeks to fixed weight with maximum efficiency and accuracy but with minimum Give Away & Waste is particularly challenging due the their length and variation in piece weight and in some pack-houses other vegetables will need to be weighed on the same line, so flexibility can also be important.

Constant re adjustment of the pack to get the best weight along with over packing whether to Average or Nett Minimum Weight is a common problem, directly impacting on overall profitability.

For dedicated leek packing operations with a good level of automation to minimise labour and speed up the operation the Aja SDW Optima Semi Automatic Multihead Scale takes away the guessing and juggling of pieces to achieve best weight and minimum give away while significantly adding a level of automation and speed to the operation.



Based on a standard multihead weigher concept the SDW has 14 bomb door weigh hoppers laid out in table top, linear format. One or two operators feed the hoppers constantly as the SDW weigher finds the best combination to the target weight and drops the leeks onto the collating belt which runs the length of the SDW weigher. All the leeks will drop on the same place on the belt and any rejects are sent the other way. The SDW can be positioned at the end of a packing belt or flow wrapper, with a direct interface to control the packing operation.

The Leek SDW is offered as a special modified version with extended extra deep hoppers, lowered collation belt and special rib belt to ensure even leeks up 40cm long can be handled, though optimum size is up to 30cms.

Fixed or variable count is possible. Max speed of a SDW with 2 operators is 32ppm; however with leeks because of size we achieve around 22ppm > 25ppm.

In pack-houses where more flexibility is required and perhaps manual weighing is preferred or more practical Aja offers the DPWS Weigh-station Scale with OPUS Wi Fi networked Average Weight software.

The DPWS is a custom designed scale/workstation to optimise operator efficiency and product handling. Using standard weighing and operator interface modules the Aja team design a workstation to fit into any pack-house operation.

Operators are rapidly guided through each weighing operation by a simple traffic light system and bar graph. The OPUS software with automatic pack weight optimising ‘PWO’ works continually in the background adjusting individual scale target weights to ensure minimum give away while remaining legal over a given production run or batch. OPUS is constantly pulling the average pack weight close to the declared weight. Operators are monitored in real time for speed and accuracy and any errors or overweighing’s are flagged up by a series of alarms at the PC. Typical Give Away can be as low as 1% depending on leek size. Plus ppm is optimised using best practice designed weighing-packing station.





© Aja Ltd. (UK) / International Weighing Review

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