The tray filling machine has been at Bracell in São Paulo for some time and has been adapted for use in Bahia state
The relentless pursuit of process improvements to foster greater efficiency, technological upgrades, safety and above all better working conditions led to the installation of a machine that automatically fills seedling trays with the eucalyptus saplings grown at Bracell’s nursery in the municipality of Entre Rios. This mechanization increased production speed, increasing overall productivity. The project was created in a partnership between the Nursery and Forest Efficiency.
The tray filling machine can process up to 92 trays an hour. Each tray holds 176 tubes. On average a person can manually fill 17 trays an hour. “With the machine, the operators simply place the trays and the tubes in the hopper and make any adjustments needed during the process with the tubes”, explains Diego Oliveira, an intern in the Forest Efficiency department and one of those responsible for the initiative.
The innovation has been positive for both Bracell and the nursery professionals. Damião Correia dos Santos says “the machine has come to contribute and is doing so”.
Manufactured by a company in Rio Grande do Sul state, the tray filling machine is now being used at Bracell’s nursery in São Paulo and received adaptations for use in Bahia state. The Quatis Nursery has the capacity to produce 24 million cloned eucalyptus seedlings annually for the company’s own plantations in Bahia, São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul. In addition to this nursery, Bracell BA has another seedling production facility in the municipality of Inhambupe, with an annual capacity of 18 million units.
