Scotts Precision Manufacturing – a UK company that manufacturers harvesting and handling equipment – has recently received its biggest order yet. Earlier this month, the firm sent seven Evolution cleaners to Allan Potato Equipment Manufacturing Ltd. – Canada’s largest designer and manufacturer of potato harvesting equipment.

The order will allow Alan to incorporate the Evolution cleaning system into its own three-row electrically-driven harvester.

Introduced by Scotts in 2005, the Evolution Table was designed to gently separate clod, stones, haulm and loose soil from a wide range of vegetables, fruit, and alliums, including potatoes, gourmet potatoes, sweet potatoes, and more. At the core of the Evolution lies the patented roller design. This enables two contra-rotating rollers to work together to gently move the produce across the table. The movement of the rollers loosens the dirt, which is worked into a valley, where, if soft enough, the debris is crushed and ejected down below the separator. The machine also offers a range of state-of-the-art features, including programmable memory roller settings, self-cleaning rollers, and HMI Touch screen control.

“We have been supplying Allan with the Evolution separator for several years but this is the largest order we’ve received from them. 2019 has been an excellent year so far and we’ve seen a dramatic increase in interest in the Evolution from customers in the UK, USA, Europe and now Canada, which is fantastic! I think, like Allan’s, we are benefitting from increasing labor costs in North America and Canada and a growing awareness of the high-quality machines that both Scotts and Allan’s are producing,” said Derek Scott, managing director of Scots Precision Manufacturing.

As for the Allan three-row harvester, the electric drive is said to be the first of its kind on the market. The company chose to implement the electric drive as it is efficient and uses a lot less power than traditional harvesters, while also being easy to service. Transmission components have been reduced by almost 80%, resulting in a very easy to maintain harvester. By incorporating the Evolution within it, the Allan three-row harvester sends very little dirt to the warehouse and can load a truck within four minutes. By comparison, other machines can take up to 12 minutes to perform the same task.

“Our fully electric, three-row harvester features an innovative electric drive system that offers advanced control of the harvester while delivering Allan’s core values. It has a simple design; it’s easy to maintain, offers gentle crop handling, high capacity, and reliability. It has proved to be an incredibly popular machine, and we’ve enjoyed significant interest over the last few months, meaning we needed to order these seven Evolutions from Scotts. The Evolution is unique and is backed up with exceptional customer service from Derek and his team in the United Kingdom. We have been working with them for five years, and we’ve come to rely on the Evolution as it is a central part of the three-row harvester,” noted Trent Cousins, partner at Allan Potato Equipment Manufacturing.