CODEMA

BERGSCHENHOEK, the Netherlands: Perry van de Haak is a family owned business that produces young seedlings, primarily of geraniums, which they supply to the European market. They own 20 hectares of mother plant production in Africa and another two locations in the Netherlands of 2 hectare each, and this new one with 32,000 square meters, or 3 hectare. Codema designed, developed and delivered the entire cultivation system for their new location

Large number of specific wishes in the field of automation

Codema was already involved in the process before the greenhouse was built, which led to a huge benefit. Perry van de Haak: ’’Working with Codema right from the start was a smart choice. At this nursery, we did have some doubts about whether to go to concrete floors or to construct a roll container system, but ultimately we do find that it works better and the plants grow better with roll containers. However, we did have a number of specific wishes regarding this automation, and then Codema had to look closely at whether they could find a way to do it. For example, we wanted more (walking) space between the rail tubes. We also demanded quite considerable speeds. Codema was able to meet those wishes and to achieve the speeds we required. They never said ‘no’ and always tried to make things possible. It resulted in a fast and flexible system.

24/7 service

The software is of course an intrinsic part of the whole system. Perry van de Haak: ’’Codema has a whole department for this, where they are very good at the whole control side of things. They provide service 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. This is important for us because we operate 24 hours per day for a number of weeks in the season.”

Solid long-lasting materials

Perry van der Haak explains his choice for Codema: ” Everything that was technically possible, has been implemented. They understand me and my company and they get it done. Of course that is great for me as a client. Codema installs systems all over the world and have proven themselves. They’ve been in the market for a long time, and Codema has always made very solid products. They make things just a bit thicker, just that bit heavier. That’s necessary, because a system like this has to last a long time.

Lifts, wash units and overhead cranes

The video shows how containers are filled with pots by robots and transported to a wash unit via an self-propelled drive.

After humidification, the containers are moved, where a vehicle can load the containers. The container lift takes the containers to the second layer, which serves as a buffer path for sorting out. Every container is registered via the SDF control panel, so that when searching for the right plant parties, the right orders can also be realized.

The sorted containers from the hot section and the cold section are moved with the vehicle on the center path to the mixing department where the containers can be emptied and buffered on stack carts. Through assignments from the SDF software, the overhead crane can place the empty containers as efficiently as possible.