At the Oct. 3-5 Madrid Fruit Attraction, Sorma Group, a global leader in automated machinery for post-harvest of fruit and vegetable products will present the most highly automated and largest (in terms of daily output) line ever installed for stone fruit.

Along with innovations for fruit and vegetable processing and packaging, the group will present a processing plant with a production capacity of almost 2.2 million pounds of fruit in one processing shift and a 15-20% labor cost savings. 

The line is the world’s largest and most highly automated in the stone fruit sector.

The stone fruit processing line

“Thanks to a catalog of more than 160 machine models and 50 of packaging, Sorma is the sector’s only player to design an entire processing line from A to Z,” states Mario Mercadini, the company’s marketing manager. “This is exemplified by the new stone fruit plant designed, installed, and commissioned for a big Spanish customer. This summer 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.” 

The plant covers all processing phases: from the point where the fruit enters the plant via continuous-cycle bin/box tippers to the washing/treatment phase, and onward to optical grading by color, shape, and internal and external quality, packaging in punnets or in boxes with pockets, and the labeling, palletization, and strapping of the packs, with complete product traceability.

Among Sorma technologies that make it globally unique in terms of production capacity, flexibility, and level of automation, are:

• The optical sorter machine with HyperVision, is installed on all 21 grading lines. With an operating system using nine 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 the rest of the plant. 

• The innovative trolley fruit conveyor system in the sorter machine enables the processing of various types of fruit. Generally specific models are used for each variety.

The plant is able to process nectarines, peaches, apricots, plums, Paraguayo flat peaches, apples, and Rocha pears (with a dedicated infeed line with submerged and relative water channels for the most gentle handling).

“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 labor 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.”