Iceland review - 2015, Qupperneq 88

86 ICELAND REVIEW
This fundamental take on the old adage ‘a chain is only as strong
as its weakest link’ is nowhere truer than in the food industry,
where the machinery for production is almost equally important
as the ingredients of the food that you produce.
Since seafood is king in Iceland, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that
this is the place to visit to find innovative fish processing machines like
the one Curio builds—handcrafted and cutting-edge machinery.
FOUR AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Curio specializes in the four vital areas of fish processing, offering ma-
chines that are designed to expertly remove fish heads, remove skin
from fish, fillet the fish, and sharpen knives.
What makes Curio stand out in a crowded marketplace is not only
that the company was founded and developed in the midst of the
thriving Icelandic fisheries industry, but also the sheer level of detailed
thought and attention that goes into all four machines.
The Curio C2011 filleting machine, for example, is made of 2,300
components—which roughly equals a medium-sized car!
Unlike the car, the Curio machine is handcrafted from stainless steel
and precision-shaped by laser-guided jets of water and sand. The
steel is then welded into the correct shape before being thoroughly
cleaned and de-greased in fluoric acid.
Since fluoric acid is a dangerous substance, it’s removed from the
steel using low-concentration hydrofluoric acid, which is in turn re-
moved with strong soda soap. By this stage the parts have become
toughened and they have an even, matte finish.
The final stage is the application of a special nutrient lotion which
penetrates the steel, leaving it astonishingly resistant to corrosion and
very hard-wearing.
A common element of all Curio machines are carefully positioned
safety panels that users can open to get to the machine’s inner mech-
anism to find obstructions or carry out basic maintenance and quick
and easy cleaning. The basic maintenance of a Curio machine is none-
theless easier than you might expect, thanks to Curio’s self-lubricating
system, which keeps the machines running in a smooth and indepen-
dent manner.
BACKUP WHEN YOU NEED IT
The Curio products have an excellent and growing reputation for
being easy to use, efficient and reliable—but for those rare occa-
sions when something does go wrong, Curio customers can rest
assured that spare parts for all of the company’s components are
kept in stock at all times for quick dispatch—and the same people
who built the machines are available on call to help customers face-
to-face.
There are 39 members in the Curio team, all of whom play a cru-
cial role in ensuring the company offers equipment which is both
better-performing and more reliable than solutions offered by com-
petitors.
ADAPTABILITY ABOVE ALL
Curio creates all new machinery that specifically suits the needs of
each new customer by taking into account many factors—they look
at which species the machine is most likely to be used for and how
large the whitefish is likely to be on average.
This tailored and individualized approach to each client ensures
the greatest possible efficiency and ease of use for the end user,
but this does not mean that the machine is set for good and un-
changeable.
A plant that is tailored to process large cod, for example, can
easily receive and process a consignment of medium-sized had-
dock with a few simple adjustments to its Curio machinery.
In fact, Curio equipment is designed to work with all whitefish
species from cod and haddock, to saithe or wolfish, and even salm-
on or trout.
english.curio.is
BETTER PRODUCTION,
BETTER PRODUCT
As Curio would know, a company’s products are only as
high-quality as the tools and processes it uses to make them.
SPECIAL PROMOTION
SEAFOOD ICELAND
CONFERENCE 2015