Tomra Food has launched several new solutions for sorting, grading, and packing, which it showcased at Fruit Logistica in Berlin earlier this year.
It was here that Tomra showed publicly for the first time its Adaptive Rate Controller for large fruit, and the next-generation user interface for Spectrim and for the InVision 9.0 Small Fruit Sorter for cherries. The Adaptive Rate Controller (ARC) optimises sorter input, using an infeed-mounted camera and pre-trained AI models to maintain consistent incoming fruit volume by continuously counting fruits on a roller elevator and autonomously adjusting infeed speed.
Tomra claims Spectrim 5.0 is easier to use than its predecessor, enabling the same grade rules and outcomes to be achieved with half the cutpoints, and has new algorithms which further improve blemish tracking, sizing, and grading.
Tomra’s solutions could be seen on the large, 2.2 meters-tall and 2.5 meters-wide hologram machine at the event. This showed, in 3D animations and video, a wide range of Tomra’s solutions: the Tomra 3A, Tomra 5A, Tomra 5B, Tomra 5C, and Tomra 5S Advanced sorters; the Cascade Singulator for cherry singulation; the CURO-16 small-fruit packing system; the KATO precision grading system for blueberries; Spectrim, with the UltraView inspection module; and the Inspectra2 internal inspection system.
Tomra says that AI is well-suited to food processing because sorting and grading machines are rich sources of data – and because these machines have to solve complex optimization problems while responding to the impacts of seasonality and variable crop quality.
AI is already employed in some of Tomra’s sorting and grading solutions, and is set to become increasingly important as a way of improving operational efficiency, reducing food waste, and maximising value.
