HAITH Group, a designer and manufacturer of vegetable handling equipment is celebrating the diamond anniversary of its mobile grader.
Introduced in December 1963, the mobile grader has become one of the company's best-selling machines, with more than 300 produced in the past six decades.
The technology found in today's graders has progressed significantly since the 1960s, featuring a heavy-duty hopper, auto crop flow control, a choice of cleaning systems, touchscreen HMI control and shaft-mounted drives. Haith also provides optional features such as soil extractors, optical sorter integration and stainless or mild steel construction.
The latest mobile grader to leave Haith's South Yorkshire factory was bought by BH Savidge & Son, which opted for the PRO SF 2400s model.
Ben Savidge said this had been custom built to the company's requirements and had replaced its previous high-capacity grader could not be moved and required very high power to run.
"We've known for a few years that we needed a mobile grader. This year, we needed to grade 2,000 tonnes more than last year and knew we would be working at our main base and another farm. As we wanted to invest in one machine to work at both sites and futureproof ourselves, the Haith mobile grader made perfect sense," he said.
Haith’s Managing Director Duane Hill said there has been a recent resurgence in interest in mobile machinery for grading and sorting amongst growers and packers.
"The ability to move their machinery around is very popular now. We have a very healthy order book at the moment. Hopefully, when we come to celebrate the mobile grader's Blue Sapphire anniversary in five years, we will be marking the 350th mobile grader leaving the factory," he said.
