The Little Potato Company has seen some notable increases in throughput and quality in the 18 months, since Haith helped modernize the company’s Alberta factory. The company focuses only on producing Creamer potatoes – nutritious, fully mature, small, specialty potatoes, and supplying them across the United States and Canada.

The Little Potato Company’s relationship with Haith started in 2005, when Frank Santiago, director of capital assets, was looking to improve the effectiveness and reliability of their washing and handling equipment. When faced with a troubled in-feed system, featuring two box tipplers, Santiago reached to Haith for help.

“We used to feed our wash line with two box hydraulic tipplers, but they were problematic, very slow and required a lot of maintenance. We decided we needed to improve,” says Santiago.

Haith recommended not only changing the box tippers but introducing a new de-stoner.

“The team at The Little Potato Company was relying on a pair of old hydraulic tippers. We recommended replacing those two machines with just one Haith Rota-Tip SE. We also recommended introducing a bag decanter to their set-up so they could handle bags as well as boxes. Finally, we suggested they move to one of our Supa-Flume De-Stoners, which they did,” says Haith’s Sales Director, Duane Hill.

Haith’s Rota-tip has a patented design and can handle up to 30 boxes per hour. The Rota-tip SE handles two boxes at a time. Its innovative design sees it rotate around a center pivot, which means the weight of the box is never lifted, and the machine is not put under any pressure, thereby eliminating fatigue or damage to the machine and the box. Haith has also incorporated a continental web on the machine, which forms a lid on the box as it rotated, to ensure the crop isn’t scuffed when it is transferred.

Supplied in stainless steel or painted steel, the Rota-tip SE is the original all-electric tippler. By removing the hydraulics, Haith’s design team has ensured it handles produce safely and without risk of contamination. The tippler is also easy to use via an intuitive, programmable HMI control screen.

Haith also recommended the Supa-Flume De-Stoner, which can handle up to 20 tons of 10 to 45mm Creamer potatoes per hour. It also features heavy-duty rubber stone discharge belt, energy-efficient close-coupled pump and external bearings throughout.

A year and a half after The Little Potato Company commissioned the new in-feed system, the company is benefitting from the best of both worlds – increased efficiency and less costly downtime.

“Originally we were operating with two machines. Now we have just one box tippler running at twice the speed and it’s incredibly reliable, which is crucial as we’re running 19.5 hours a day, six days a week,” said Santiago.