fruittek
White Glove Grading
As a grower/packer you go to great lengths to produce and harvest the best possible produce you can, and the best way to ensure your customers will get orchard fresh quality out of the box is to grade and pack your fruit with the utmost care.
While all apple and pear grading machines in one way or another are designed to grade your fruit, not all machines are designed very specifically to prevent bruising during the grading process.
Bruising not only looks bad to your customers, but it also speeds up degradation and negatively affects the taste of your fruit. Any consumer will tell you they always pick around the bruised apples in the produce display at their local grocer for these very reasons. And commercial produce buyers are no less discriminating!
Van Wamel Perfect has gained a reputation of being a leader in gentle sorting solutions with their Unicup graders by helping packers maintain the original harvested appearance of their fruit regardless of variety or ripeness, while also preventing shelf-life issues due to bruising.
De Simone Farms in Kelowna, B.C. has enjoyed the benefits of gentle handling on the Unicup sorter for several years. Aurora Golden Gala is one of the toughest apples to mechanically grade and pack without bruising, but Pierre De Simone was happy to report: “We were able to successfully grade and pack Aurora Goldens to a BCXF standard on our Unicup sorter.”
Several features on the Van Wamel Perfect Unicup and Unigrader sorters make this possible:
- Top mounted soft rotating brushes at every transition keep the fruit moving in a controlled manner to facilitate separation and prevent impact.
- Proprietary rotating singulator brushes receive and singulate the fruit while preventing fruit-to-fruit impact.
- Specially designed cups, top mounted powered brush, and adjustable timing ensures the fruit is gently lowered into the cup (not dropped).
- Fruit rolls (doesn’t drop) from the cup onto a soft rubber ramp and is cushioned by a soft rubber divider as it gently transitions onto the exit conveyor.
- The same rubber dividers are curved to control the direction of the exiting fruit and prevent fruit- to-fruit impact on the exit conveyor.
Van Wamel Perfect Uni-series graders are also equipped with industry leading vision grading technology.
Sorting Modules include:
- Optical Size Measuring. Scans 100% of the fruit surface for a true and accurate measurement to within 1mm of accuracy.
- Color sorting. Scans 100% of the fruit surface and measures on a spectrum of 32,000 colors, by basic color or blush in increments of 1%.
- External Defect Sorting (EDS). High resolution frame captures, and a visual 3D model of the fruit allow for extremely precise defect detection of even the smallest of defects and also fruit shape criteria. Acceptable criteria (stem and calyx) is also ignored, yielding precise defect sorting results up to 95% of the time.
- Weight Grading. The weight of each individual fruit can be captured for statistics, or to make weighted batches at the exits.
- Internal Defect Sorting (IDS). Still in beta phase.
Van Wamel Perfect graders might just be the best kept secret in the fruit packing industry, and it’s the small to medium sized packers that are reaping the greatest benefits from these graders.
“When everything rides on how good your fruit looks in the box, then you need a grading solution that will not compromise the harvest fresh look and taste of your fruit!”
A growing number of small to medium sized packers in the Northwest are putting their trust in Van Wamel Perfect graders. As of September 2016, there will be 6 Unicup graders installed in the B.C. and the N.W. USA.
Fruittek Canada and Fruittek LLC are the Western Canada/U.S. agents for Van Wamel Perfect.
The Fruittek companies also represent Multiscan: Electronic cherry grading solutions that fit every budget!
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Van Wamel Grader
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Uni-series graders
Van Wamel Perfect Uni-series graders are also equipped with industry leading vision grading technology.
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W Perfect Uni-Grader
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Uni-Grader
Please look for a special article about a robust and cost effective electronic cherry sorting solution in this summer’s Orchard and Vine Innovation Guide.
If you are interested in learning more, please contact Brady Vander Woude at (877)826-3427 or email: brady@fruittek.com
