Royal Greenland’s fishing fleet renewal has continued with its newest and most high-tech vessel Akamalik being equipped with an onboard shrimp processing factory from Danish processing equipment specialists Carsoe.
Akamalik will be the vertically-integrated fishing company’s fifth new trawler to be fitted with a complete Carsoe onboard factory.
Delivered in 2019, Sisimiut fishes for halibut and whitefish. Also delivered in 2019, Avataq targets shrimp and halibut, and 2021’s Nataarnaq fishes/processes shrimp. And coming in 2023, Tuugalik will target halibut, cod and shrimp.
Akamalik’s factory deck will include a complete shrimp processing factory with a high level of automation including robot handling and automatic freezing of the processed catch.
Bringing the experience from the previous vessel Nataarnaq, which was delivered in 2021 and has since then set several records, the Carsoe factory on this newest addition to the Royal Greenland trawler fleet is also designed for high capacity. As a new addition, the factory will include an innovative palletising section with three integrated palletising robots.
According to Carsoe, with the palletising and sorting robots, handling can be adjusted according to product type and production flow to keep the final part of the processing plant running smoothly. For instance, with three robots, each overlapping the next robot’s range of motion, the production can continue without stopping, even if one robot is inoperative.
It is also possible to bypass one or two robots and send the products straight to the cargo hold, if the catch does not require further sorting.
Palletising and transportation of the catch to the cargo hold is done in a continuous flow and at a minimum of floor space with a cargo elevator as an integrated part of the palletising machine.
This unique and adaptive handling setup creates a very flexible factory solution, Carsoe said.
It added that while the handling part of the factory contains many new features, the design of the processing factory is based on Carsoe’s numerous shrimp processing solutions.
“This factory plant is almost identical to the one on Nataarnaq, including automatic bycatch separation and shrimp grading, a continuous cooking line as well as four IQF-tunnel freezers, each with a capacity of 25 tonnes per day,” Carsoe said. “The factory is also designed with a separate line for Japan shrimp with a highly automated flow, including an automatic horizontal plate freezer and a masterpack line.”
Akamalik is to be delivered in the first-quarter 2025 and will fish in waters around Greenland.
