History

Staalkat’s history goes back to 1956. In that year Mr. D. van Katwijk, founder of Van Katwijk’s Industrial, bought the company “Libra” in Hummelo in the east of Holland, a producer of machinery for the textile industry, and moved it to Aalten which is also situated in the east of Holland.

His idea was to produce egg-grading machines besides the existing product range.

The first egg grading machines that came out of production were two-, three- and four-row grading machines in wooden frames. Off course these machines were without automatic loader, let alone automatic packers. Weighing was done by means of the scale principal, which has proven it’s functioning for 50 years now.

A couple of years later the first machines were developed with loaders and automatic packers including denesters.

From the beginning Staalkat was international orientated and the machines were sold all over the world.

As some poultry farms grew bigger, Staalkat developed in 1966 the peakabsorber giving them the opportunity to directly grade and pack the eggs from the poultry house

Two years later this peakabsorber combined with the packer lead to the first Farmpacker. It turned out to be an important product for Staalkat and is globally renown.

Since 1968 thousands of Frampacker have been sold over the world and the newest versions are still finding there way to poultry farmers worldwide.

Staalkat was slowly building on a global fame and the machines were part of the best and most advanced in the market.

In 1971 the first 12-row grader was produced and turned out to be another success for the company.

As the market demanded more capacity, Staalkat kept on improving their machines resulting in the Electro Compacta.

A revolutionary grading and packing machine for its time.

Since the foundation, the company’s growth saw an upward trend and the old factory was soon becoming to small. In 1980 the company moved to the present accommodation at the Ambachtsstraat 4.

In the eighties the microprocessor brought many advances to the data processing, and the new machines were described as “highly intelligent”.

Besides the call for bigger capacity machines, especially from the U.S.A., the demand for process security and operator/maintenance friendliness was increasing. Because of mentioned reasons Staalkat introduced the 18-row ECM with a capacity up to 90.000 eggs per hour. This machine was fully equipped with all known technical options at that time. These developments kept Staalkat in the lead of the market.

The weighing method was still further developed and resulted in load cell weighing, a highly accurate weighing system still which is still being used today.

Besides the demand for big capacity machines, smaller mechanical graders from the Compacta range and the Farmpackers were still being improved and adjusted and going all over the world showing their unprecedented reliability.

In 1989 the automatic traystacker was added to the Farmpacker, making it an even more operator friendly machine.

Throughout the nineties and the beginning of this new century the ECM series were perfectly attuned to the needs of the modern egg industry, all representing the unequalled Staalkat quality.

A new century and an even increasing demand from the market for complete high capacity egg grading and packing machines resulted in the ARDENTA with a capacity of 100.000 eggs per hour.

The ARDENTA 12 has a tailored system for the infeed of the eggs and is equipped with a unique control system for optimum output. With all the optional facilities concerning hygiene, quality detection and traceability of the eggs, the ARDENTA 12 meets present and future demands.

Staalkat International B.V. exists this year for 50 years. Since the foundation in 1956 Staalkat International B.V. has characterized itself worldwide as a trustworthy and progressive partner. Staalkat International B.V. has demonstrated in half a century to be in the lead of modern developments, to fulfil the requirements set in the global egg-industry.

Besides that Staalkat celebrates it's 50th anniversary, 2006 is a very special year for Staalkat. In this year Staalkat  joines the SANOVO group from Denmark and is looking forward to another 50 years which will bring new challenges and opportunities.