“Tong is very highly respected as a worldwide leader in quality designed and manufactured handling equipment, and our Tong USA office ensures our expanding USA customer base receives the very best customer service every step of the way. Even the simplest things like being in the same time-zone as our customers, allowing us to respond immediately to their requirements, has made such a big difference to how we do business in the USA.”
“We have had a great response from USA growers and packers looking for advanced, custom built vegetable handling solutions, with new sales ranging from individual machines such as our industry leading box and bin filler, the EasyFill, to complete turnkey grading and washing lines.”
One grower in Pennsylvania, Nate Richards of Scattered Acre Farms, appointed Tong USA to supply their new potato washing facility, which was commissioned in June and now sees the farm washing up to 30 tons of crop per hour.
“We traditionally sourced our handling equipment from US manufacturers, but when we went into bin storage and handling two years ago, we researched the market and found Tong Engineering’s range of advanced bin handling equipment would best meet our requirements,” explains Nate. “We worked closely with Tong and their east-coast US dealer Modern Produce Equipment, and they designed a custom-built bin handling system which included the Tong EasyFill bin filler and heavy duty bin tipping equipment.”
“I was very pleased with the equipment from Tong; the system works great, so when specifying our new potato washing line, we were very keen to work with Tong again, and utilise their expertise to achieve an equally efficient handling system that integrated well with our current Tong equipment. Having the Tong USA office on hand this time round made the process from initial specification to installation and commissioning even easier.”
The new washline at Scattered Acre Farms features an infeed elevator designed to receive crop from Semi trucks, before Tong’s industry leading EasyClean separator ensures effective dirt elimination prior to washing. Tong’s next generation washer with integrated destoner gently washes crop before it passes to a sponge dryer, followed by a Tomra Sentinal II for optical sorting.
“We’re delighted with our new washline from Tong,” says Nate. “We’re now operating an advanced potato washing facility that features the latest technology and optical sorting, which makes the whole operation much more productive. Tong’s HMI touch screen controls and diagnostics features have transformed our control capabilities and are dramatically reducing our downtime for maintenance.”
The flagship, 14-brush model of Tong’s low maintenance, high capacity TPS-PRO polisher is fitted after the washer for an enhanced and polished finish. Crop is then dried as it passes over Tong’s latest direct-drive sponge dryer. Both the polisher and sponge dryer feature a motor on every shaft for maximum performance and minimal maintenance. Crop inspection is carried out on a 6-man roller inspection area and washed crop can then be split into 5 sizes with another series of EasyGrade screen modules, before it is packed into via a series of Tong tote and bin fillers.
“The design and equipment within the line makes the flow of crop really efficient, and the technology on the Tong line is very impressive,” says Bart. “We can control the entire line including making quick and easy changes for bypass and speeds, as well as washer and polisher control at the touch of a screen, or via WiFi on our tablet, it’s really user-friendly.”
Charlie Rich, Export Sales Manager and Head of US Sales at Tong Engineering explains; “We worked very closely with Skone & Connors and visited their site several times to fully understand their space and requirements. We proposed an initial concept and as our relationship developed, we gained a deep insight into what Bart wanted to achieve, which allowed us to determine a final solution that really worked for the facility, bringing noticeable efficiencies and added capabilities.”