New Seed Cleaning Facilities for Luisetti Seeds Ashburton

Luisetti Seeds is importing a cuttingedge, high capacity seed cleaning, treating and packing production line from Germany and will have it operational for next harvest.

The installation of this plant is a significant investment for Luisetti Seeds and indeed the arable industry in Canterbury. It will enable Luisetti Seeds to offer more efficient seed cleaning with lower dressing losses for its growers as well as meeting shipping deadlines for its international and domestic seed customers.

The new PETKUS plant will process ryegrass, fescue, cocksfoot and cereals and has several special features designed to minimise dressing losses. These include a pre-cleaner with integrated riddle scrappers to keep scalping riddles clean and separating correctly as well as the latest technology in double head separating. This means we can split double heads, a particular problem in turf ryegrass, and feed these back into the main line where previously they have been discarded.

The plant has a treating and bagging facility that can be operated independently from the seed cleaning line. The packing system is a ‘bespoke’ design that Mark Frampton worked on with PETKUS where two bulk bags can be filled simultaneously and taken away with a forklift on a double pallet. The equipment was purchased last year when Luisetti Seeds Operation Manager, Mark Frampton and Vincent Luisetti travelled to Europe to look at new seed cleaning equipment for their Ashburton plant.

After a thorough examination of potential suppliers, Luisetti Seeds ordered the high capacity PETKUS seed cleaning, treating and packing production line.

Although virtually unknown in New Zealand, German company PETKUS is one of the largest manufacturers of seed cleaning equipment in the world. During their visit to PETKUS, Mark and Vincent were impressed by the quality and precision of the manufacturing process. They toured the Roeber Institute (R&D Department of PETKUS) where they viewed future developments in seed processing such as steam treating and 20 design engineers working on new seed cleaning machinery and the improvements to existing PETKUS cleaners.

The plant Luisetti Seeds has purchased is highly automated and incorporates cameras that enable our production staff to view product flows and production remotely.

Through Wi-Fi, the plants operation is also supervised from Germany where PETKUS technicians will make fine adjustments when required. A state of the art dust collection and management system has also been purchased from Germany which will provide a more pleasant, almost dust free environment for our operational staff.

The plant also features specially designed clean down facilities that both minimise clean down times and eliminate any possibility of contamination between lines.

The plant is due to arrive in approximately 19 forty foot shipping containers in September and October 2020 and will be assembled and commissioned by PETKUS engineers and electronic technicians from Germany, Serbia and Australia.

Site works are currently being undertaken by Calder Stewart who are making alterations and additions to our warehouse and yard in preparation for installation. Laser Electrical, Ashburton will be providing the electrical and pneumatic services for the plant.