Every day Martinique Aviculture, the leader in its market, produces graded eggs and egg products. For 25 years, the company has been the largest industrial scale producer of eggs in Martinique. It now covers more than 80% of local requirements. “We have 2 laying farms, one in Le François and the other in Le Vert-Pré. Between these two farms we have 160,000 laying hens out of the 200,000 on our island” states Bérangère Bonnetête, Co-Director of the company. At Martinique Aviculture there are 35 employees, most of whom work on the Le François site where the packing station and offices are located. The assets of this company are based on the quality of its staff, the quality of the production which meets Draconian specifications, the freshness of the eggs offered because most often they are on the shelves the day after being laid” indicates Bérangère Bonnetête. 

This family business is moving forward: it always offers more products to the local markets: graded eggs in shells marketed as two brands (“Mavic” and “Bonnaire”), pasteurised liquid eggs and this year Martinique Aviculture offers a range of fresh crêpes in large retail outlets (Ovoconcept crêpe carousel). Dominique Dauchy, his children Bérangère and Jérôme and their colleague Mr. Pertand are dynamic, loyal OVOCONCEPT clients. In 2006, Martinique Aviculture began to equip itself with plastic trays, pallets and dividers as well as a tray washer. Apart from the savings in packaging, this step make it possible to go further and take the leap into automation from the start of this year…

The first choice in automating the Martinique Aviculture packing station concerned the automatic feed to the egg grader, a 36,000 eggs/hour Staalkat. In fact, as all the eggs are collected on plastic trays, pallets and dividers, it was possible to automate this workstation which was very arduous for operators. It therefore put in place a Junior one stack at a time depalletiser (with automatic stacking of dividers) with a stack transfer system to insert them onto the cleats of the conveyor of the Staalkat denester for the egg grader. This choice enabled a very small space to be used in the station, whilst ensuring the rate for the egg grader because this one stack at a time robot makes a 100% feed to the grader possible (capacity of up to 40,000 eggs/h).

Given the efficiency of this initial application, a rapid decision was made to continue the approach of automating the station. 2 other robots were put into service in July 2014. The first puts inserts in boxes at the outfeed of the film-wrapping machine. The second is an “OVOPAL 250”. As a result of conveyors collecting cases at all workstations in the station, it palletises all the product references. The boxing cell fills the boxes with inserts of all formats. There are 2 boxes being filled in the cell. When these are full, an operator removes them and replaces them with 2 empty boxes. The case palletisation unit, an “OVOPAL 250” makes it possible to process up to 5 pallets with 5 different references. The type of case is identified using a barcode system specific to each product. The case is identified at the palletiser infeed and then placed on the corresponding pallet. This robot makes it possible to process 250 cases per hour. All the robotised cells self-operate and self-configure using a simple, user-friendly touch screen, which allows very rapid familiarisation for the operators.

”We have naturally turned to these innovative solutions firstly to improve working conditions for our staff, and secondly improve our productivity and consequently our profitability” stresses Bérangère Bonnetête.

In 2015 and 2016, 2 Junior palletisation robots were installed on the 2 Martinique Aviculture production sites.

In 2017, an OVOMULTICASER robot for packing trays in cases, with automatic case erection, was added to the robots already present at Martinique Aviculture.

It was at the VIV EUROPE 2014 Trade Fair (Utrecht, The Netherlands) that Mr and Mrs Klein, representatives and owners of the WESTERWALD BIO GmbH packing station which specialises in the packaging of eggs other than battery eggs, based in ESCHENBURG ROTH, Germany (120 km north of Frankfurt), became interested in the robotised solutions offered by OVOCONCEPT.

In July 2015, WESTERWALD BIO GMBH undertook the construction of a new 2500 m² packing centre fitted with solar panels and geothermal heating.

After defining the requirements and needs linked to their production (a very large range of products, a significant number of references of boxes and open-top cases used), WESTERWALD BIO GMBH entrusted OVOCONCEPT with the automation of their packing station because OVOCONCEPT met their specifications best and offered them the most versatile, flexible solutions.

The automation of this station then took place in 3 stages:

• Installation of an OVOPERFORMER D500 depalletiser robot with a capacity of 200,000 eggs/hour:
  • Loading of full pallets on a motorised conveyor, depalletisation of 4 stacks of 6 trays at a time, stacking and automatic evacuation of the stacks of pallets and dividers.

As a complement to the OVOPERFORMER D500 depalletiser robot, WESTERWALD BIO GmbH chose to install an efficient, compact, low energy washer and opted for the model of pallet and divider washer per batch from OVOCONCEPT offering a rate of 10 pallets and 40 dividers/hour (see Innovations article).

• Installation of an OVOPAL 500 palletiser robot with a capacity of 500 cases/hour:
  • Each case and open-top case filled by the operators is routed to the OVOPAL 500 palletiser robot. Products are identified by their barcodes and transferred to the corresponding line (up to 4 separate references at a time).

The open-top cases are picked up 2 by 2 using a specific gripping head which enables both cardboard and plastic cases to be palletised.

Once finished, the pallets are automatically evacuated.

• Installation of an OVOCASER robotised case packing cell
  • 2 lines of the grader have been replaced by our specific conveyors which automatically evacuate the open boxes, collects them, counts them and turns them over if necessary. As the result of an automatic change of gripping head which prevents handling errors by an operator, this OVOCASER robotised cell is capable of managing 8 product references with only 3 separate gripping heads!

Depending on the various references, the OVOCASER robotised cell works at a rate of up to 40,000 eggs/hour.

We are very happy and proud of this wonderful installation. We thank Mr and Mrs Klein and Mr Pigeon (Technical Manager) for entrusting us with the automation of their packing station. This is a superb reference which contributes to the development of our brand image and proves the quality, versatility and flexibility of our robotised applications daily.

Oaklands Farm, founded in 1957, has continued to develop since then to become an indispensable player in England. In fact, the company is now the largest producer of caged hen eggs, even though they are also investing a large amount in free range and their packing stations.

The company is at the forefront of all the existing technologies in the field and is proud to be the most efficient in England. The Griffiths family has chosen two of the most complete OVOCONCEPT solutions:

• To equip the site devoted to washing plastic products the Griffiths brothers opted for our OVOTUNNEL LPI200 plastic pallet and divider washer with the “dirty” products denester at the infeed and the stacker of washed products at the outfeed. This totally automatic machine, designed and manufactured by us, makes it possible to wash 880 articles on average per day* and requires very little handling (infeed and outfeed of pallets only).

*This entirely automated machine makes it possible to wash up to 160 articles/hour.

• On the site of the Ruabon packing centre, where 1,500,000 eggs/per day are graded, the finished products (cases and open-top cases of eggs) were previously palletised manually and the pallets film-wrapped by hand. Elwyn and Gareth Griffiths were already convinced of the advantages of automating their production tools and decided to entrust this site’s end of line to Ovoconcept.

Our solution: the OVOPAL 1000 palletisation robot capable of dealing with up to 1000 packages/hour (depending on the references) and an online high rate wrapping machine (pallet film-wrapper). Together they handle half the daily production.

3 lines transport closed or open-top cases from the egg grader (capacity of 180,000 eggs/h). These are firstly stacked if required and then palletised. Two pallet denesters (2 formats possible) automatically present the empty pallets to the robot programmed to manage up to 9 product references to date.

” The flexibility and scalability of the system convinced us. We have now added references to serve our clients better.We can already see that this system will enable us to increase volumes whilst improving the quality of working conditions, finished products and also our productivity!” specifies Elwyn Griffiths

The cherry on the cake: the in-line wrapping machine!

The 3 palletisation lines are in fact connected to a wrapping machine by an entirely automated shuttle on rails. The pallets are film-wrapped automatically. Several programmes are available depending on the references (programmes defined according to the degree of stability of the products on the pallet). Once film-wrapped, the pallets arrive at the end of line at the loading docks and the forklift operators remove them to place them directly in the trucks!

Today the wrapping machine deals with all the pallets exiting the OVOPAL 1000 and can also receive pallets constructed manually and loaded by an operator at the line infeed

Ovoconcept has successfully implemented this complex project; this customised, easy-to-use solution has enabled us to meet market requirements and resolve the very real operational problems. We have now put in place a new standard of efficiency in our industry. The operations of loading eggs into the grader, the opening of cases, grading and packaging, filling of cases, palletisation and film-wrapping are all automated! … An incredible success!” concludes Elwyn with enthusiasm.

In 2019, the Ferme du Moulin Saint Jacques (GMA Group), a major player in the egg sector in Guadeloupe, decided to reorganise and automate its production tool. After visiting and having discussions with the automated site Martinique Aviculture in Martinique, about studying the possible solutions that could be adapted to his packing centre, Philippe Collas, Project Manager,

After visiting the automated site Martinique Aviculture in Martinique and had discussions, Philippe Collas the Project Manager spoke to Ovoconcept about studying the possible solutions that could be adapted to his packing station.

On this site fitted with a Moba egg grader, the starting point has been to automate the feed to the egg grader. Firstly we installed a new 6-stack SIME-TEK loader to make it possible to automate the loading of the egg grader with eggs coming from farms external to the site.

As the site was already equipped with the ECS plastic concept (plastic egg trays, pallets and dividers) and our LA 1500 tray washer, we were able to put in place a D125 depalletiser robot for loading the egg grader. The robot receives the pallets of eggs, feeds the egg grader loader by stacks of 6 and stacks the empty dividers. This installation improves the productivity of the egg grader and also avoids the drudgery of this task for operators.

Then on the outfeed of the egg grader the production of film-wrapped inserts is an important part of the volume. In order to avoid any handling to recover the inserts at the egg grader outfeed, putting them on a pallet followed by loading them on the film-wrapping machine to obtain the finished product, we have installed a connector direct from the egg grader outfeed to the infeed of the film-wrapping machine.

We have put a motorised transfer ejector in place at the outfeed of an egg grader packing machine and then an automatic conveying system to the film-wrapper infeed. A top tray denester and an automatic insert denester were set up on the conveyor line to avoid any operator intervention. A system for the control and detection of missing eggs was also installed to ensure there are no non-compliant products at the outfeed of the machine.

Ovoconcept is very proud of this new installation and thanks Philippe Collas and his entire team for the confidence they placed in us. This installation enables the site working conditions and productivity to be improved. It is also a very good work tool to be demonstrated to develop the loyalty of current and future customers of La Ferme du Moulin Saint Jacques.

The STERRER GmbH company represented by DI Gerold Sterrer, has been an indispensable player on the Austrian poultry farming market since 1931.

Exclusive distributor in Austria for both the German equipment manufacturer, Big Dutchmann, and the Italian company, Sime-Tek (also our partner, manufacturer of farm packers and egg graders), STERRER GmbH has also produced eggs for consumption for more than 25 years.

With the construction of an additional building for 20,000 hens bringing the total of laying hens on the same production site to 45,000, STERRER GmbH needed to modernise egg collection.

Within a policy of rationalising labour costs STERRER GmbH decided to invest in a new FLASHPACK farm packer dealing with 40,000 eggs/hour and also our JUNIOR AE40LC palletisation robot .

This new production line makes it possible to collect double the number of eggs whilst reducing collection time and drudgery for operators.  

Using our Czech representative, OMAS SPOL SRO, as an intermediary we installed our first JUNIOR AE80 robot on a site with 160,000 laying hens, a laying farm which is part of the Czech company, AG MAIWALD. Installed behind a 72,000 eggs/hour farm packer, our JUNIOR AE80 robot

Installed behind a 72,000 eggs/hour farm packer, our JUNIOR AE80 robot picks up and puts down 2 stacks of 6 at a time at a maximum rate of 80,000 eggs/hour.

In order to have the most versatile robotised solution, we have installed a top tray denester system making it possible to pack the eggs in cardboard or plastic trays. The full pallets are automatically evacuated by a stainless steel chain conveyor and weighed individually.

These 2 installations in Central Europe strengthen our policy of development abroad. We thank these 2 clients warmly for their trust and we are persuaded that this type of installation will increase in this region of Europe.

As a result of a regular presence at international trade fairs and effective collaboration with our Italian partner, Sime-Tek, we have installed 3 palletiser robots in Italy, including one with the Brunello company. Mr Brunello was won over by the Sime-Tek farm packer when visiting a complete installation in Brittany!

Mr Brunello was won over by the Sime-Tek farm packer when visiting a complete installation in Brittany! He therefore selected an 80,000 eggs/hour Flashpack double packer and an all-options palletiser robot with feed systems for the packer denesters. This robot is fitted with a stack transfer system at 90° after the stacker (management of a single batch on 2 packing heads). It picks up and puts down 4 stack of 6 trays at a time and the full pallets are evacuated automatically with an accumulation of 3 pallets. ”We opted for a Sime-Tek-Ovoconcept combination because the efficiency, flexibility and reliability of this line does not have an equivalent on the market” Mr Brunello told us.