Key Technology introduced a unique new concept for sorting green beans prior to snipping. This innovative solution removes foreign material (FM) and separates easy-to-snip green beans from hard-to-snip green beans to improve snipping efficiency. Specifically designed for this new insertion point, Key’s integrated sorting system for pre-snipped green beans improves case recovery to reduce the processor’s cost per ton, while also producing more consistent product quality with less equipment in the downstream process.
“Processors of frozen and canned green beans have razor-thin margins. They want to lower costs while maintaining their product quality. That’s the challenge we set out to solve here,” said Mark Roedl, Area Sales Manager at Key. “We applied our expertise in green bean processing and came up with a new idea – a different way to process green beans. This integrated sorting system is installed upstream of where digital sorters have always been on these lines, and it’s a game changer. Early adopters are achieving impressive results that warrant the investment.”
The integrated system combines Key’s Iso-Flo® shakers, a Rotary Size Grader (RSG) and a VERYX® digital sorter to separate incoming product into four streams. Two streams go to waste and two ‘accept’ streams lead to further processing. One ‘accept’ stream is dedicated to green beans that are difficult to snip, which go to downstream equipment that is optimized to snip this type of product. The other ‘accept’ stream takes field-snipped and easy-to-snip green beans and leads to downstream systems designed specifically to handle these green beans.
First, an Iso-Flo shaker evenly feeds the RSG, which sizes by length and diameter to remove short and thin green beans as well as other small objects such as insects, corn cob pieces and seeds. Next, an Iso-Flo shaker feeds VERYX, spreading product for presentation to the inspection system to maximize sort accuracy. This VERYX is equipped with top-mounted Pixel Fusion™ cameras and laser sensors to detect the color, size, shape and structural property of objects. It features three-way sorting, with the ‘reject’ stream ejecting FM such as corn cob, corn root, frogs, mice and plant stem material as well as color defects and other waste. The integrated system is available in various widths to satisfy a range of capacity requirements.
VERYX is equipped with Key’s powerful Information Analytics software, which allows users to analyze and share data across their enterprise via an OPCUA-compliant infrastructure. Data about the sort process and about each and every object flowing through the sorter, whether the data is used to make sort decisions or not, is available to reveal patterns, trends and associations to optimize processes upstream and downstream of the sorter.
For more information: 
Shayla Wentz
Key Technology
Tel: +1 509 529 2161
Email: swentz@key.net
www.key.net