In mid-December, Apple King of Yakima, Washington upgraded its Ellips TrueSort apple grading and sorting technology to incorporate Ellips’ “Deep Learning” solution called TrueAI.
Mills says with this upgrade, it can now detect difficult defects such as stem bowl cracks, at a high level of accuracy with minimal false positives.
“We have always felt our Ellips grading technology provided us with a competitive advantage based on its overall performance, including the ability to accurately detect both external and internal defects,” said Kyle Mills, Apple King’s operations manager. “With this upgrade, we can now detect even the most difficult defects, such as stem bowl cracks, at a very high level of accuracy with minimal false positives. During the first three days of operation, we ran Honeycrisps and Galas, both of which exhibited a fair amount of stem bowl cracks and the results were impressive.”
Ellips has been developing the TrueAI solution over the past three years. This solution delivers grading accuracy by facilitating the detection of complex defects and produce characteristics. Additionally, the system operator’s tasks will be more automated. As grading performance moves towards 100 percent detection accuracy, grading and sorting tasks can be done with minimal staff so each piece of produce ends up at its rightful destination ensuring maximum returns.
Ray Keller (above) says even apples with difficult-to-detect defects that previously might have ended up in the packing area were correctly sorted.
In 2022, TrueAI was implemented across multiple commodities including dates, pomegranates, apples and, most recently, onions. Upcoming implementation will focus on blueberries, cherries, kiwis and other fresh fruits and vegetables. TrueAI’s Deep Learning functionality can be added to new or existing systems and requires little system operator training or effort on behalf of customers. Importantly, future TrueAI updates, based on targeted defects or specific needs, can be quickly incorporated into the system.
“From day one, the improvements were immediate and visually apparent,” said Ray Keller, Apple King owner. “Even apples with difficult-to-detect defects that previously might have ended up in the packing area were correctly sorted. This improved performance will help improve productivity while delivering a consistent pack to our customers. We can now also more effectively incorporate automated packing technology at the various packing exits since manual intervention can be virtually eliminated.”
For more information:
Apple King
Kyle Mills
Tel: +1 (509) 945-3098
kyle@appleking.com
Ray Keller
Tel: +1 (509) 966-4830
ray@appleking.com
www.appleking.com
John Albert
Ellips Group
Tel: +1 (206) 915-4962
john.albert@ellips.com
www.ellips.com