IWM lends a hand for high-care horticulture

The Jones Food Company (JFC), a leading horticulturalist supplying fresh ingredients for many of the high street supermarkets, needed a reliable sanitizing solution for the trays in which herbs are grown but because of the unusual size of these trays, no standard washing machine was suitable. Industrial Washing Machines (IWM) was, however, able to develop an efficient and cost-effective customised machine to meet JFC’s requirements.

To support its drive to achieve greener operations and greater efficiency, JFC challenged IWM’s engineers to develop and build a specialised washing machine for sanitizing hydroponic growing trays. These are 1500 mm high x 3000 mm wide x 65 mm deep – a completely non-standard size. And the challenge was made even more interesting because JFC needed the machine to be delivered and working within 12 weeks!

The solution developed by the IWM team was a tailor-made pallet washer that provides an efficient and effective wash process using a hot detergent wash, followed by a fresh rinse, sanitizing and two-stage drying. The machine uses recirculated and filtered hot water for the washing cycle, which saves water, energy and detergent. Apart from loading and unloading it is completely automated and achieves an impressive throughput of up to 50 trays per hour.
www.indwash.co.uk