Sorma Group, who design and construct complete lines for the post-harvest of fruit and vegetable products, presented two innovative new grading solutions at this year's Fruit Attraction: PulpVision, a new optical sorter machine for kiwis that is able to detect green, yellow and red colours within the fruit pulp, and BIOSCAN® for measuring the Brix value of fruit.
Also, in the area of optical grading, Sorma Group once again displayed its top-of-the-range HyperVision platform at the trade fair together with the updated version of InstanDefect-AI, the Sormatech vision software based entirely on Artificial Intelligence and deep learning systems which is now even more effective at detecting all types of external and ripeness defects.
The three solutions use the Sormatech platform, the mechanical structure of the Sorma Group optical sorter machines based on the model Z carrier which makes it possible to rotate and transport fruits of between 38 mm and 110 mm, and can be assembled, as demonstrated at the trade fair, but also individually.
Daniele Severi, Director of the Technology Division at Sorma Ibérica, "With these new products, Sorma Group demonstrates its close focus on the needs of the fruit and vegetable sector in post-harvest operations, responding with dedicated solutions that guarantee quality end products in appropriate timeframes and enable our customers to be competitive on the international market."
Looking at the details of the individual machines, Sorma Group has taken steps to improve the analysis of kiwi pulp colour with the PulpVision sorter which operators can use to sort kiwis into various groups on the basis of their pulp colour and manage their introduction to the market more accurately, transferring those fruits that haven't reached the ideal colour to refrigerated chambers and making those that are ready available for sale on the market, thereby improving the consumer purchasing experience. The sorter machine works at the same speed as the Sormatech line, 15 kiwis a second, analysing the whole fruit with rotation of 360°.
Meanwhile, BIOSCAN is the solution for measuring, also on the processing line, the level of dissolved sugar content in citrus fruit, stone fruit and tomatoes (Brix). The process is very simple: the products are passed under the Brix measurement unit equipped with N.I.R. sensors which exploit the material's interaction with near-infrared radiation, making it possible to obtain, in real time, information on the molecular structure and chemical-physical properties of fruit. Completely non-invasive, this system leaves the fruit intact, making it possible to perform frequent sampling, while guaranteeing high levels of precision and the extremely delicate management of the product thanks also to the special transport and unloading system.
At the Sorma Group stand, it was possible to learn more about the multiple functions of the HyperVision optical sorter machine, that's more efficient thanks to new version of the InstanDefect-AI software.
Romke van Velden
Sorma
+31 (0)174 610 101
[email protected]
www.sormabenelux.com