Automating Efficiency in Sustainable Potato Packing
Pengelly Farms manages 1,200 acres of potato production in Cornwall, supplying approximately 16,500 tonnes of premium salad potatoes annually to UK and European customers.
Pengelly Farms, a long-standing Cornish potato producer, has significantly enhanced operational efficiency by integrating automated case assembly and sealing technology from Endoline Automation.
In the coastal landscape of Helston, West Cornwall, Pengelly Farms has spent over half a century perfecting its potato harvest. Established in 1967, this family-run operation has evolved from a local grower into a premier UK producer of premium salad potatoes. Managing 1,200 acres, they supply approximately 16,500 tonnes of produce annually to UK and European supermarkets, wholesalers and high-end restauranteurs.
However, as the Red Tractor and LEAF-accredited farm scaled its infrastructure, it encountered a classic industrial friction point: the high-speed potato packing bottleneck.
Following the recent modernisation of its processing line with a highspeed Newtec chute loader, Pengelly
18 FDPP- www. fdpp. co. uk
Farms identified an opportunity to optimise its downstream packing operations. The manual assembly and sealing of heavy 10kg boxes presented a significant operational challenge as this consistently struggled to keep pace with the upgraded system.
The traditional manual processes were no longer aligned with the performance of advanced grading and sorting technology. As a seasonal operation, Pengelly Farms recognised that increasing labour alone would not deliver the longterm efficiency gains required. Instead, they partnered with UK end-of-line packaging specialist Endoline Automation.
Dual vacuum solves box assembly issues
To transport potatoes across the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe, Pengelly Farms utilises heavy, twinwalled cardboard cases. Although these provide the structural integrity for a 10kg potato payload, they can be notoriously difficult to automate. Stiff, heavy-duty cardboard often resists opening. In a standard automated system, this can lead to bridging, tearing or recurrent machine jams.
The solution lies in the‘ dual opposing vacuum technology’ unique to Endoline. Rather than attempting to pull the box open from a single direction, the system applies force symmetrically.
“ The dual opposing vacuum technology is especially beneficial when forming heavy-duty boxes. It works by clamping each side of the case during the forming process applying the same amount of pressure to simultaneously open it from both sides,” explains UK Sales Manager James Saywell.
From a technical standpoint, this is a masterclass in using physics to bypass mechanical resistance. Neutralising the inherent stiffness of the twin-walled card by applying equalised pressure, the compact Endoline machine eliminates the physical strain of manual manipulation.