Compac’s aptly named Small Fruit Sorter has started production for Prima Frutta based in Linden, California, tying in with the peak of the US state’s cherry season.
The sorter is capable of grading 50,000 cherries every minute for size, shape, color, softness and surface defects.
Equipped with Compac’s InVision 9000 sorting system, the Small Fruit Sorter uses a combination of LED lights and digital cameras to capture multiple images of every cherry, allowing for an accurate model of each cherry to be created.
Compac sales and marketing director David Buys said the machine is helping post-harvest operators maximise their returns.
“The level of consistency our InVision system delivers allows our customers to significantly reduce the amount of fruit which they eitherincorrectly downgrade or worse still,throw away,” Buys said.
“When you have hundreds of individuals subjectively sorting cherries you cannot guarantee consistency over a long shift, our goal is to reduce this number and also raise throughput.’
“Our measure of success is how much extra value we can add to our customers’ operations by upgrading their productivity and maximizing fruit which can be sold in the highest grades.”
The Small Fruit Sorter is the result of a collaborative project between Compac, Van Doren Sales and Fruit Handling Equipment, with an eye on growing the companies’ presence in the US cherry sector.
“We’re looking forward to leveraging this project as an example to the rest of the industry of what our capabilities are,” Van Doren Sales’ Bret Pittsinger said.
“Compac technology, combined with our high standard of workmanship is the industry standard for cherry sorting solutions, both in California and Washington State.”
