PW-ACTUA Clean right into the depth of the eyes Small-packaging company Landjuweel from the northern village of Uithuizermeeden is increasingly packaging products that must include perfectly clean potatoes, baby potatoes in microwave packaging, for example. These potatoes are ready to be eaten after only a few minutes in the microwave and without the use of knife or peeler. An ugly appearance or crunching sand is definitely not welcome. With the Hex Polisher, Landjuweel is able to clean potatoes beautifully, but the machine has more advantages. ‘Can you see the difference?’ ask Hein Kortebos from Tummers and Hendrik van den Berg from Mountec when they confront us with a ‘normally’ cleaned potato and a polished one. What strikes one immediately is that the tubers are clean even into the depth of the eyes. Dark clay spots are a thing of the past and the skin has a beautifully-deep colour. And this all takes place without any damage to the potato skin. The reason why both gentlemen travelled up north is the fact that Mountec has developed the Hex Polisher, which, to everyone’s satisfaction, they have sold to small-packer De Kock in Purmerend. Because a washing machine was a bit of an unusual product within Mountec’s product range, Tummers was contacted. This company from the southern parts of the Netherlands has many years of experience with various types of washing machines. The knowledge they gained there was used to make the polisher ready for use in practice. The first machine has now been placed with Landjuweel. Shake and churn properly The Hex Polisher, as its name suggests, is a six-sided tumbler washing machine with brushThe advantage of the six-sided design is that, every time the tumbler turns, the potatoes are properly shaken and churned’, explains Kortebos. es, filled with water, in which the potatoes are turned around. ‘The advantage of the six-sided design is that, every time the tumbler turns, the potatoes are properly shaken and churned’, explains Kortebos. A look inside the machine shows that the brushes are screwed onto the tumbler. ‘As a result, the potatoes are lightly brushed, because of which the skin is not damaged’, shows Kortebos. ‘Another advantage of the fixed brushes is that the machine does not have so many revolving parts and consequently does not need a great deal of maintenance. If all parts are properly adjusted, the machine can process about 10 to 15 tons an hour, depending on the size of the potatoes.’ What you see immediately is that the tubers are even clean right into the depth of the eyes. Accurate checking At Landjuweel, the Hex Polisher is the finishing touch of a complete cleaning process. First of all, any dry earth is removed from the production flow by a large hedgehog belt. The potatoes are then sent through the stone and clod remover, which removes a great deal of tare. The next step is that the potatoes are washed in a standard washer. After these cleaning and washing operations, the potatoes are sent through the grader which removes potatoes from the lot that are over or undersized. The last step in the cleaning process is that Landjuweel has now placed the Hex Polisher in one of the three finishing lines. If the results remain as good as they are now, we will most definitely place a Hex Polisher in these other two lines as well’, says manager Henk van der Leest. After the last refresher operation, the potatoes are put one more time through the electronic grader. ‘We have noticed that this machine, now the potatoes are virtually a hundred percent clean grades them much more accurately’, says Van der Leest. Moreover, he notices that in the remainder of the processing of small packaging, less dust is found. ● 12 Potato World 2009 • number 2 Pagina 11
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