The Sunshine Coast is well known as the ginger capital of Australia. Its climate is perfect for growing the popular vegetable used as a key flavourer and ingredient in food dishes, confectionery, snacks and drinks.
For over twenty years, Yandina-based Lance Bishop Engineering has been designing and fabricating agricultural machinery for Australia’s leading grower and processor of ginger: A Templeton & Son Pty Ltd. This includes a range of diggers, pullers, spreaders and other one-off specialised equipment.
Lance is an engineer by trade and started his career with a company that manufactured peanut harvesters. It was this knowledge and insight that saw him move into supplying machinery to the ginger industry.
“There’s not much machinery you can buy off the shelf that is suited to the needs of a ginger grower, so everything has to be designed and fabricated from scratch,” Lance said.
Lance’s extensive engineering capabilities and problem-solving skills were recently called upon in relation to a spreader that was in use.
The key issue with the spreader was that the mulch/compost was sticking to the sides of the storage bin – the operators had to continually stop the machine and bang and bash on the sides to free the material.
“50% of their time each day was being wasted by having to stop and start the machine. Also, the mulch/compost that did come out often came out in clumps which was yet another problem and looked terrible,” Lance said.
Lance had some experience and understanding of vibrators after seeing them being used in the concrete industry. He concluded that this may well provide a solution to the issues the company were experiencing. After some online searching he came across Enmin Vibratory Equipment in Braeside, Victoria and viewed their range of Flow-Easy vibrators.
After chatting and receiving advice from Enmin’s Sales Manager Paul Leahy, a THD 2500 Hydraulic Vibrator was deemed most suitable.
Lance’s fabrication skills had the vibrator fitted to the spreader in no time and the result was instantaneous.
“The Flow-Easy vibrator immediately transformed the spreading process and solved the problem; the mulch/compost flowed easily and in a completely controlled discharge. It was hard to believe that one device could have such a huge impact – productivity has gone through the roof and the operators are thrilled,” said Lance.
“I’m really impressed with the quality and overall construction of the Flow-East vibrator – it’s performing faultlessly and appears to be bullet proof. We look forward to many years of use from it,” Lance summed up.