Increasingly more growers are moving to bench systems. The choice primarily depends on the associated costs, but also on quality and ways of making the work in a glasshouse more efficient.
From benches...
There are various bench systems on the market for making the work in a glasshouse easier. The first step from full ground cultivation to fixed benches improves the work position of personnel a lot: people can work standing up rather than bent over. This improves efficiency and working conditions. The most interest in these systems comes from low-wage countries. The benches are often combined with an ebb and flow floor. With this combination, the crop can be watered. A lot of demand for these tables comes from Mexico and China.
There are various bench systems on the market for making the work in a glasshouse easier. The first step from full ground cultivation to fixed benches improves the work position of personnel a lot: people can work standing up rather than bent over. This improves efficiency and working conditions. The most interest in these systems comes from low-wage countries. The benches are often combined with an ebb and flow floor. With this combination, the crop can be watered. A lot of demand for these tables comes from Mexico and China.
Roller tables
...to roll-top benches...
The next step towards improvement is the use of roll-top benches. The pathways can be variable with these benches, so not as many paths are needed. The result is more square metres of cultivation area and therefore higher production is possible. The demand for such benches is increasing in countries where the market for floriculture is increasing. It is interesting that the demand for these systems starts with the end consumer.
Techniques are getting ever more advanced
...to mobile containers
When the product quality increases, there is more demand for the next step in tables, specifically mobile containers. The growers are well aware of the importance of tables, but they still have to move a lot. The workers walk past the tables through the glasshouse, which costs time. Time is money, especially in high-wage countries. By using mobile containers, the workers can work from a fixed position.
Floris Berghout of KG Systems. KG Systems makes mobile systems so that they can easily be robotised. They have a working agreement with Technison from Bergschenhoek
Floris Berghout sells KG Systems table systems. Floris: "At the moment, there is a lot of demand in England for the automation of mobile container systems. The worst of the economic crisis seems to be behind them there. Growers have previously postponed the decision, but now they are starting to commit. In addition, the strong English pound means that now is a good time to invest in Euro countries. And we also have lot of work in Australia at the moment. Wages are very high there and growers want to invest in order to lower wage costs.
For more information:
KG Systems bv
Leeuwenhoekweg 58
2661 DD BERGSCHENHOEK
(010) 521 26 44
E: info@kgsystems.nl
www.kgsystems.nl