Automation supports fruit farming

It may seem like an unnecessary luxury to many: robots in fruit farming, an industry where most people imagine everything is done by hand. However, for Peter Veltman of Kerk-Avezaath near Tiel, "the Einstein of fruit farming," it is seen as an essential next step in the growing automation of this industry. Whereas for a long time there was a trend toward moving operations to low-wage countries, automation has now made it possible to keep everything at home or bring it back here. With a focus on unfolding crates that hold the trays of fruit, Veltman and his company Fieldman are designing entire lines with a number of innovative components that he builds himself.

Inventing the missing link

Originally from the labeling industry, Veltman knows the fruit growers' processes like no other. "I know what the customer needs. I have an idea, I put that to the customer and that idea then becomes a design," he explains. "The design is for the whole line, including the packaging materials. That's my strength, my added value. I come up with the 'missing link' between all the machines and start where the rest ended." Veltman knows where the problems lie with his customers and one such problem was de-nesting plastic trays at a strawberry grower and then placing the trays in a crate, very labor-intensive and awkward work. Now there is a line with Yaskawa robots at the front and back and a de-nester in between. At a rate of 10,000 trays and 1,000 crates per hour, this is a huge advance in flexibility and capacity. Where previously hard manual work was done 24 hours a day, this solution means many more trays in much less time.