PROJECT TYPE
Mechanical Engineering Design and Improvement
CHALLENGE
No longer just a tiny garnish, microgreens — the edible delicacies grown from the seeds of vegetables and herbs — are now a flourishing market in North America. To save farmers time and money harvesting this specialty crop, Niagara’s Hamill Agricultural Processing Solutions added manufacturing to the mix, with its automated industrial system. After success with its Harvester line of cut and wash machines, Hamill needed advanced research and development for the design of a specialized microgreens dryer — a system powerful, yet efficient and able to work in tandem with its two other standalone apparatus.
SOLUTION
The Research & Innovation team collaborated with Hamill to experiment and test the various air knife positions, blowers and mechanical/electrical systems to design the optimum microgreen conveyer dryer. The stainless steel machine will work alone or conjointly with both the Harvester cut and wash machines, which are capable of harvesting 2,200 trays a day of microgreens, results that are more than 50 times faster than manual harvesting. This innovative trio is already saving farmers thousands of dollars daily and is receiving interest from across the globe — a success now requiring Hamill to expand both its facilities and workforce.