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Increased shrimp production for Japan
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High expectations of Carnitech’s new Japan line on board Qaqqatsiaq have been met. Royal Greenland is now able to maintain the same capacity with half the crew.
Raw, high-quality shrimps for the Japanese market. A delicacy indeed, and the type of product in which Royal Greenland hopes to increase its stake in the future. They estimate that over time, the upgrade of their existing line will be able to boost the production of Japan shrimps by 40%.
A labour-intensive operation
“On our new semi-automatic line, each individual employee can produce twice as much as before. In practice this means that we can maintain the existing maximum capacity with half the crew. This is extremely important to us given that the processing of shrimp for the Japanese market is such a labour-intensive operation. Until now we have not had the resources on board to exploit the available capacity and produce the quantities we wanted, but since one operator can now handle as many as three weighs at once, we are able to run at full capacity,” says captain of the ship Torbjørn Joensen.
Quicker production flow
A number of optimizing factors have made these improvements possible. First of all, the Carnitech weigher hopper system allows for continuous weighing out, independent of the operator. Secondly, a case erector with automatic feed to the weighing tables has been positioned right in front of the line, saving valuable time previously spent on fetching cases further away. Thirdly, automatic sealing and labelling of the cases also saves time, so the shrimps get to the freezers much quicker. “Between them, these optimising factors result in a better, quicker flow and far more user-friendly weighing out,” says production manager Claes Hjælmeland.
More accurate grading
Other production areas have also been given an optimising lift. More direct in-feed for the shrimp graders makes for an even distribution on the screens and thereby more accurate grading, which was the specific requirement of Royal Greenland. Here, emphasis is on quality rather than capacity increase, but according to Søren Hansen, area sales manager at Carnitech, the new in-feed system also opens up the possibility of higher capacity while maintaining existing grading accuracy, which might be the need of other customers.
By-catch separation with double capacity
Separation of by-catch has become easier and more efficient onboard Qaqqatsiaq. The new unit from Carnitech is twice the size of traditional separators and provides twice the capacity. A semi-automatic tilting system generated by an electrical cylinder makes it easy to adjust the angle of the conveyors and contributes to the improved user-friendliness of the machine. “By and large we are pleased with our new easy-to-clean separator with its user friendliness and its stabilising mechanisms that compensate for lobsidedness. Besides, we expect the operating system to provide us with a longer service life, since the plastic sprocket has been replaced by a robber roll,” says Claes.
Increased efficiency in packing area
Qaqqatsiaq is the first factory trawler to invest in Carnitech’s new, larger magazine for Seaward case erectors in its packing area. With space for 600 plano sheets at a time and improved feeding to the case erector, operating times have become noticeably longer and there is less interruption of production caused by jamming during in-feed. Combined with automated label application, Royal Greenland has thus increased production efficiency considerably with the new magazine. “An additional efficiency and capacity increasing feature in our packing area is an extra strappingline, also supplied by Carnitech. It provides reserve capacity at peak load or in the event of failure on the other lines. At the end of the day, this means an overall capacity boost, since the risk of a complete production shutdown is now negligible,” says Claes.