Compac has announced the successful deployment of its Spectrim optical sorting platform at the US-based Washington Fruit and Produce Company.
Spectrim is the New Zealand headquartered company’s new modular and upgradeable sorting solution, incorporating advances in defect detection, classification and operator ease of use. Through advanced machine-learning algorithms, the platform has been designed to automate complex tasks that operators normally have to conduct manually.
Compac’s chief executive, Mike Riley, said Spectrim reduces the need for labour-intensive processing and helps eliminate variations in grading outcomes caused by human operators.
“Producers face ever growing demands for consistency, traceability and packaging variations from global retailers,” Riley said. “By harnessing the full potential of optical sorting technology and machine learning, Spectrim possesses the accuracy, power and flexibility to address our customers’ most demanding challenges now and into the future.”
With the ability to take up to 500 high definition images of a piece of fruit as it passes through the machine, at a rate of 12 pieces of fruit a second, Spectrim detects the hardest to find external blemishes on fruit.
The Spectrim cabinet has also been designed with the latest food hygiene standards in mind, using the latest materials and industrial design to enable ease of cleaning and ongoing maintenance.
“We’ve been working with Compac for more than 15 years now and were excited to agree to be the launch customer for the world’s first deployment of Spectrim,” explained Washington Fruit’s system operator, Mikey Hanks. “Spectrim is a great leap forward in grading capability, we have seen major improvements in both accuracy and throughput and a more consistent pack compared to our other line without Spectrim.
Riley thanked Compac’s staff and the company’s customers for their assistance in bringing the platform to market.
“Its design principles have benefited from crucial input from lead customers around the world, and external research authorities in New Zealand’s world-class Horticultural Crown Research programme,” he said. “It has been a monumental team effort, and I want to acknowledge and thank everyone involved, not least Mikey, Tommy and the Washington Fruit team for being such a great launch partner.”
Compac will be presenting its Spectrim platform at Fruit Logistica in Berlin, with its stand located in Hall 5.1 – Stand A11.
