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www.rjherbert.co.uk
HERBERT
news
volume 8 summer 2007
The Official Newsletter of R J Herbert Engineering Ltd
Herberts get Top Royal Show Honour
Royal Agricultural Society of England honours Herbert Engineering with Sir Roland Burke
Perpetual Challenge Machinery Trophy. Presentation to take place at the Royal Show.
R J Herbert Limited has been awarded the Sir Roland Burke
Perpetual Challenge machinery trophy for a sustained contribution
to the potato industry. The prestigious award will be officially
presented at this year’s Royal Show, which takes place at
Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire, from 1-4 July.
According to Peter Stovold, Royal Show executive director, “The
Burke trophy is the senior machinery award presented by the
Society. It’s well-worth coming to the stand and finding out what
makes this Herbert machinery worth the prestigious award
it carries.”
As many of our readers are aware Herbert Engineering was
founded in 1972 by Rod Herbert, the present head of the firm, and
have been at the forefront of technical development,
production excellence and service to the potato industry ever since.
Rod Herbert Comments “I am extremely proud to be
receiving this award on behalf of all the staff at R J Herbert
Engineering. We have a loyal and very knowledgeable team who
have been with the company for a long time and significantly
contributed to its success and retained the quality that have
helped the company grow. Everyone here is proud of our the farm
graders and agricultural machinery and we look forward to serving
the potato industry for many years to come”.
Extended Summer Issue
■ Special Agricultural Feature
■ Open Day Review
www.rjherbert.co.uk

Agriculture Special Feature
Hay Farming
Hay Farming is a 2000 acre farm on the
Holbeach Marsh with a wide range of crops
produced on some of the best grade silt
land in the country. They bought their first
Herbert grader in 1989 for loading onions
into store, and in 1990 they bought
a second machine for grading potatoes
and bulbs. Nearly 20 years later, they
have just taken delivery of their
most comprehensive grading line
yet, capable of grading onions, bulbs
and potatoes. With the latest cleaning
technology available, the Herbert 2400
Contractor is equipped to deal with the
wide ranging conditions that growers are
experiencing more frequently, from the
driest seasons where damage must be
minimised, to the wettest years where raw
cleaning power is essential.
Pictured:
Contractor 2400
A Multi-Sep cleaner was specified as it
allows for a huge variety of roller sizes to
be fitted depending on the conditions
faced, and can be easily setup to handle a
wide range of crops. Nigel Patrick states “
the Herbert name is renowned for excellent
build quality and reliability, and with an
after sales service that is second to none
Herbert’s have proven to us that they
provide the best grading solution on the
market. Their recognition for outstanding
service to the industry is well deserved and
we wish them continued future success.”
Features & Benefits
The new Herbert Contractor II range features 1800mm and 2400mm wide
machines with a very high specification as standard. They can be supplied from
our own stock of standard machines or built to your exact individual requirements.
They are suitable for a range of crops, including potatoes, onions, carrots
and bulbs.
High capacity
The features and specification of the new range of graders are at the core of their
ability to handle crop in all conditions at high capacities of up to 60 tons per hour.
1972 – Today
In 1971 Herbert’s prototype grader was
built for the farm’s own use, but this quickly
went into mainstream production in 1972
with the conception of the Herbert
MultiGrade. By 1976 24 machines had
been sold and Herbert Engineering
employed 16 people. By 1982, Herbert’s
were manufacturing an average of one
grader per week.
Cleaning power
The Herbert range features a unique system for interchanging cleaner modules to
allow flexibility for dealing with different conditions. We have the following cleaning
systems available for standard fitment to new machines.
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Multi-Sep cleaner (exclusive agreement with Grimme)
7 row adjustable star cleaner (unique Herbert design)
Hydraulic Dolman Roller Cleaner
Spiral cleaner
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Continental Web
Transport
With farms increasing in size it is very important for a machine to be easily moved
between sites. The Contractor II range is fully road legal, coming under the 3.5m
maximum width limit. All aspects of the machine are designed with this in mind, so
moving the grader is a simple and straightforward process.
By 1990 they had designed and installed
what was at the time the UK’s largest
potato packhouse. Compare this to the
present day, and Herbert Engineering now
employs over 140 staff and manufactures
a huge range of vegetable handling
equipment for export all around the world.
GRADING WASHING PACKING AUTOMATION CONVEYING

Customer quotes
NEW
Agricultural
Product
Focus
Peter Grewar,
Peter C Grewar (Potatoes) Ltd, Blairgowrie.
We are 100% happy with the performance and
reliability of the machine and the superb backup
we receive from Herbert's which, given our
distance from their factory, gives us the
confidence to keep using them as a key
machinery supplier.
Gary Naylor,
AH Worth & Company Ltd, Holbeach.
Herbert's expertise in potato grading equipment
from design through to manufacture has given
us the capability to handle an increase from
400 acres to in excess of 900 acres. Herbert's
have always excelled in providing a service
and support to back up their excellent build
quality, and the recognition from the RASE is
well deserved.
GF2 Box Filler
Herbert Engineering is always
striving to keep it’s products in a
market leading position by utilising
advances in technology, and making
improvements to design and user operation.
The 2007 GF-2 twin box filler is no exception
to this rule and has recently undergone a raft of
product improvements. The result is a more compact
footprint, innovative self adjusting crop control hoods with
fall breakers, improved access to key areas for ease of maintenance,
and unique self adjusting product sensors for consistent crop detection and better filling.
The new box fillers are available in a range of widths to suit different grading lines and
remain very competitively priced.
NEW
David Watkins, Ballingham Hall Ltd, Hereford.
Our current 8ft grader was supplied in 1998 and
has provided ten years of reliable service. It
is well equipped to handle the wet seasons
which are becoming more common, and easily
handles the capacity we require.
Jason Jolley, G’s Growers Ltd, Ely.
G's have been buying equipment from Herbert's
for over ten years for the both the farm and the
packhouse businesses. We cannot afford to run
unreliable machinery and have always been
very impressed with the quality of Herbert
equipment and the support they provide.
With a large acreage of potatoes and onions
planted each year we need to ensure that we
have reliable, well made machinery and a strong
service backup from all our suppliers. Herbert's
are well regarded in the industry and we rely
heavily on their machinery throughout the lifting
seasons.
Herb Elevator
A major salad and herb grower in the South who supply pre-cut herbs to a local market
base and to a number of supermarkets, approached Herbert’s after discussing a design
for a herb harvesting system at a conference. The requirement was for a pair of trailermounted
arms to allow for products, such as parsley and coriander, to be manually
harvested and placed onto a low level conveyor and then delivered onto the bed of the
trailer. This would then allow the loose product to be boxed and weighed on the move,
before being transported back to the farm for distribution. The customer states “The
original idea came from a product which Herbert’s had already manufactured for
harvesting other types of vegetables, and they were very keen to adapt the idea to suit
our own requirements. We needed the elevators to be longer to allow a wider area to be
harvested, and easy to fold up ready for transport. We are very pleased with the end result
and it has so far proven very successful.”
DRYING DESTONING FILLING PALLETISING BOX HANDLING

Record Numbers at Herbert Open Days
The variable weather in March did not put customers and visitors
off from attending the 5th biennial Open Day. More than 200
people toured our manufacturing facility, seeing machinery
demonstrations and work in progress. Lunch and refreshments
were provided in our hospitality area where visitors enjoyed video
footage and meeting our sales, service and spares team. Thank
you to all our visitors for supporting us, as many travelled long
distances from all over the UK to show their commitment to
Herbert Engineering.
Commitment to our community
We were delighted to welcome local schools whose students had
expressed an interest in Engineering careers as well as many
specialist Engineering / Agricultural colleges. We firmly believe the
relationship between education and business is vital to make students
aware of the opportunities available and the skills required.
Overseas Interest
We were extremely grateful to our visitors from Holland, Germany,
France and Belgium who made the special trip to see Herberts
latest developments and discuss forthcoming projects with our
sales team.
Herbert’s Open Day 2009
Taking on board the valuable feedback that visitors kindly
completed following their visit we shall be making the 2009 Event
even better with more machinery demonstrations and items on
show. We look forward to seeing you there for some delicious
homemade crumble!
Open Day Product Launches
NEW
Affordable Electronic Grading
We jointly launched the new high capacity DDS2000ML
Auto-sort and the market entry model DDS1300MLX
Auto-sort. The DDS1300MLX machine has been developed
as a market entry model with a low price level giving
opportunity to customers who have previously seen
electronic grading as out of their price bracket. A wide
range of options allow the system to be built to the meet
the exact customer specification. In addition the high
capacity DDS2000ML Auto-sort offers an outstanding
20tph plus grading, low maintenance and up to 3 grades.
Speak to us today about grading in your business and how
we can help develop a long-term plan to integrate this
technology into your operation.
NEW
NEW
Specialist Cleaning Module
An exclusive partnership agreement with Grimme enables Herberts to offer this
impressive Multi-Sep cleaner module as part of the Herbert contractor range. This highly proven
and efficient cleaning system includes fully adjustable and reversible clod rollers. Its efficient
hydraulic drive system with variable speed and optional roller configurations for all crop conditions
make this a flexible and versatile cleaning choice.
NEW
Easy Care Drying System
As a direct response to our European customer base this new design of drier, dramatically
reduces the amount of maintenance on a machine. The direct drive of each roller eliminates
sprockets, chains and associated guardwork. An invertor drive linked to all motors gives soft start
and full speed control of the system. Sponge or felt rollers can be used on this system.
GRADING WASHING PACKING AUTOMATION CONVEYING

Interactive Open Day
There was a cross-section of machinery on display, some operational and others being built as work in progress and covered projects
for the agricultural, fresh pack, processing,logistic and recycling sectors.
New Website
Herberts launched their new website last month. It offers visitors
a unique insight into the business, products and services of
Herbert Engineering. In line with customers growing expectations
and fast technology improvements the site contains instant video
footage of machinery in operation. Feedback has been very
positive and customers find it extremely useful when discussing
projects with colleagues. They can show video demonstrations of
our machinery whilst in meetings at their own offices.
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Instant product videos
Product leaflet pdf’s to download
Easy search tools
Latest used equipment for sale
Useful industry links
Jo Herbert, Marketing Manager comments “We are extremely
pleased with the new the site. It is easy to navigate and visitors
can search via industry sector, product or produce type”.
Web designers Sound Image reported website traffic has trebled
since its launch.
Check it our for yourself at www.rjherbert.co.uk
www.rjherbert.co.uk
Click here
DRYING DESTONING FILLING PALLETISING BOX HANDLING

Arundel-Kerr Produce
New potential customers are usually hard to find,
but new customers with a current project
and money to spend are a very rare beast.
Late last year however Herberts
discovered that very animal in
Brigg, North Lincolnshire.
The AKP Group were
looking to purchase
a high output
multi screen
grading
line for
An in line presentation conveyor after the hopper gives a gentle
feed and also allows the addition of an alternative cleaner at a later
date. A continental web module pre-cleans the potatoes prior to a
pre-inspection table where waste is removed and delivered
outside the building by an integrated waste handling system.
The crop is then split into four sizes with three sizes being
individually inspected prior to delivery into the automatic twin box
fillers. The largest size travels over the end into a extra wide box
filler supplied with the grading line. The latest phase of the project
has just been ordered and so by the end of July all box fillers
will be fitted with weigh cell systems to give complete
management information.
potatoes
at their Kirmington
Potato Services site at
Elsham. They approached
Herberts with their concept ideas.
Their initial requirement was for 3 gentle flow twin box fillers which
were for urgent use and so Herberts put together a deal which
meant they could be up and running within 2 weeks. The Grader
design followed on and after several joint discussions and a very
productive meeting at the Herbert Open days a final layout was
approved, costed and after some hard negotiations, finally ordered.
The large static system utilises an existing 15 ton Herbert Bulk
Hopper as its feeder, a unit AKP had purchased secondhand a few
years previous and had used on one of their farm locations.
Twin Big Bag Tipper
Richard Arundel, AKP Group Managing Director said,
“Having taken the decision to purchase the Kirmington Potato
Services business, the next logical step for the group was to
centralise the companies grading and storage activity on the 9 acre
20,000t storage site. The grader design was critical to the purchase
decision as the grader has to be capable of handling
the groups 500 acres of potatoes produced locally in North
Lincolnshire.It also had to grade and split Maris Peer and Salad
crops grown in Suffolk, as well as handling 25,000t of Imported
Potatoes. We have experience of Herbert Graders on farm so
to some extent we knew what we were getting in terms of build
quality. The key to winning this business was Herberts’ ability to
hit some very tight timescales and deliver a high quality project
to a demanding specification. This they have achieved and we
are very pleased with the outcome and are confident that the
equipment backed by Herberts’ service will mean that we don’t
have to look at another project like this for a long time”.
The tippers are available in twin or single models with capacities
up to 30 bags per hour attainable. Clamping facilities allow for bag
only or bag and pallet and are adjustable to suit several pallet
types. Bags up to 2m high can be accommodated and the option
to have either an in line belt or cross conveyor to suit specific
layouts makes this unit one of the most versatile available on the
market. A two stage tipping process guarantees gentle, free
unloading and the tipper is fitted with the latest category 4 safety
system to satisfy the most stringent
Health and Safety requirements.
Four twin Tippers will be
leaving for Spain in late
July to complete a
major packhouse
installation.
NEW
To meet the increasing industry demand for big bag handling
Herberts have designed and built a Heavy duty range of bag
emptying machinery which allows for both varying bag sizes and
transportation methods.
For further
info contact
Andy Hubble
+44 (0) 1945 430666
GRADING WASHING PACKING AUTOMATION CONVEYING

Special Palletiser Feature
Herbert’s have been successfully representing the market leading Verbruggen palletisers in the UK for over five years. Machines range
from the compact VPM 500 to the range topping VPM 1600, with prices starting from £36,000.
VPM 500 VPM 700 VPM 1000
Capacity: 500 bags per hour Capacity: 700 bags per hour Capacity: 1000 bags per hour
Compact, Simple, Flexible, Reliable Continuous, Flexible, Robust High capacity, simple operation
Potato Palletising – Verbruggen PM-VE 800
A. L. Lee & Sons is a family run farm at Ely covering some 9,000
acres. 2,000 acres of potatoes are grown every year with 35,000
tonnes sold from the farm in 25kg bags. The Verbruggen
PM-VE 800 Palletiser installed in October 2004 had palletised over
a million bags within 9 months of its arrival. Such has been its
success and reliability the customer is already considering
another machine for one of their other farms. Tony Lee states “with
our customers’ reliant on orders being fulfiled at short notice, and
a valuable commodity held in our stores ready for bagging, we
needed a fast, accurate and reliable machine to hugely
improve our bagging efficiency. The main reasons we
bought this machine was for the health and safety
benefits it provides to our employees and the neatness
of the finished pallets. I could not ask my staff to stack
more than 7 or 8 layers per pallet in safety, but with the
palletiser we can, if needed, now send more bags on
fewer pallets and with the finished stacks so neat and
tight, we can fit more pallets on each lorry. Overall,
we have reduced labour, increased our output and
saved money on transportation.”
Pictured: Verbruggen PM-VE 800
at A. L. Lee & Sons, Ely
Inset: Mr. Tony Lee
Flour Palletising – PM-HE400
A national group of flour millers based in The Midlands originally purchased a
PM-HE400 Verbruggen Palletiser to help them stack small batches using a range
of 16kgs, 20kgs, 25kgs and 32kgs bags of flour. The machine is a simple design
capable of stacking a number of bag sizes on different size pallets.
The customer was so satisfied with the machine that they have subsequently
installed a larger, higher capacity VPM 700 machine on a second line, and have
most recently ordered a third machine also with a capacity of 700 bags per hour.
The systems can be easily integrated into existing bagging operations to
minimise production disruption, and their reliability and build quality ensures
years of trouble free stacking.
We have experience with palletising all of the products shown below. However, if you
have a product you are interested in palletising that is not shown here then give us a
call and we’ll arrange to try a sample of it through our own demonstration machine.
Pictured: Verbruggen PM-HE 400 at
our customers flour mill in Norfolk.
POTATOES ONIONS CARROTS COAL FLOUR SAND COMPOST ICE
DRYING DESTONING FILLING PALLETISING BOX HANDLING

Siemens take Systems to Germany
Airport Build & Supply 2007
Making commitments in the Middle East
Business Development Manager, Andy
Dowe returned to Dubai this year to
exhibit our products at The Airport Show.
Hannover Messe Fair
Siemens showcased our demonstration
loop as their main attraction at The
Hannover Fair for handling technology
solutions last month.
The enormous show which runs for 5 days
brought significant awareness to Herbert
Systems. The Siemens team and our Andy
Dowe received an astonishing 50,000
visitors to the stand. Many of whom
received a guided tour and demonstration
of the Herbert five products which were
the stand highlight. It was an exhausting
but very effective event provided numerous
sales enquiries
Supporting at the event was our new agent
Magnatech. The Middle East based
company has a first class knowledge of the
local market. They are heavily immersed in
Airport installations and maintenance
programs. Godwin DeSousa, Managing
Director comments “We are extremely
pleased to be able to market Herbert
Systems products as they are a unique
design and well manufactured. They offer
our customers a new, low maintenance
solution for daily business challenges
facing Middle East Airports”.
Turning Around Europe
The highly reputed Pathfinda, already
installed in BAA Heathrow has also
secured its place in another key European
Airport hub.
This massive achievement is well received
by the Herbert Systems team whom have
been involved in significant product testing
and the extensive buying cycle. The team
are confident that our new European
customers are going to be extremely
impressed with the Pathfinda.
Upgrading Upgraders A French Connection
A Belgium based potato packer has reconfirmed their faith in
the Herbert Electronic grading technology by investing in two
new 1300 Autosort machines to replace the original Upgraders
purchased over six years ago. Having looked at alternative
technology in between, the reliability, simple design and
guaranteed capacity offered by the Autosort convinced the
customer to stay with their original partner. The new machines,
currently in manufacture should be operational by late July and the
order reaffirms Herberts commitment to the Mainland European
Market.
After a period of low activity, the French market has returned to
Herberts with a enthusiasm following the positive conclusion of
negotiations with a major potato packer located in Northern
France. The contract covers the complete supply and mechanical
installation of three high output washing lines complete with
lowerator box filing systems which fully integrate with a box
handling system supplied by our partner, Belgium manufacturer
Deprez Construct. Having worked closely together on several
projects previously both companies are confident of installing a
comprehensive solution to this important French Packer.
R J Herbert Engineering Limited Middle Drove Marshland St James
Wisbech Cambridgeshire PE14 8JT UK