The Sorma Group will be exhibiting again at Fruit Attraction to meet established and potential customers from the trade to provide insights into its many innovations for the post-harvesting processing and packaging of fruit and vegetables. The projects presented include the most highly automated and largest (in terms of daily output) line ever installed for stone fruit.
The stone fruit processing line
“Thanks to a catalogue of more than 160 models of machine and 50 of packaging. This is exemplified by the new stone fruit plant designed, installed and commissioned for a big Spanish customer. This summer's fruit processing line is the largest in the world in terms of daily production capacity and it embodies all the performance and leading-edge technology of Sorma machines,” states Mario Mercadini, the company’s Marketing Manager.
The Sorma technologies installed include:
The optical sorter machine with HyperVision, installed on all 21 grading lines. With an operating system using 9 cameras per line and the InstanDefect-AI proprietary artificial vision software package, based entirely on Artificial Intelligence, HyperVision is able to grade fruits’ external and internal quality with a product grading accuracy unprecedented in the sector, an essential technology fundamental for the efficiency of all the rest of the plant.
The innovative trolley fruit conveyor system installed in the sorter machine, which enables processing of all the various types of fruit (generally specific models are used for each variety). This plant is therefore exceptionally flexible. In fact, it is able to process up to four types of fruit simultaneously, with a choice of two processing options depending on the fruit’s degree of ripeness, accurately detected by the HyperVision optical systems.
“This project,” states Daniele Severi, Director of the Technology Division at Sorma Ibérica, “far surpasses anything previously designed and installed for processing summer fruit, in terms of both production capacity, which may be as high as 1 million kilos of fruit processed in a single daily shift, and the level of automation applied, which has enabled a 15-20% reduction in staff numbers in daily processing, with a direct incidence of labour costs on ROI (Return On Investment). The plant is designed to meet the general need within the fruit and vegetable sector for a flexible, functional response to modern distribution’s varying demands.”
The company will also show the Aporo II, the packing machine based on research developed in New Zealand, for which the Group is European dealer. Using a series of robotic arms, the machine places up to 8 fruits in the pockets simultaneously.
The Sorma Group will also offers its low environmental impact solutions. These include the Sormabag in woven net, produced with 40% less plastic than standard nets, the compostable line, and the innovative Sormapaper, the plastic-free range available in various packaging sizes in 100% recyclable FSC-certified paper and cellulose net.
Visit Sorma on stand 3D22, Hall 3.
For more information:
Jessica Sabatini and Eleonora Faietti
Sorma Group
Tel: +39 338 73 07 649 | +39 348 4074079
www.sormagroup.com/en/