In March 2021, the GP Graders team travelled to Bundaberg in Central Queensland to pilot its first MultiView™ camera system for cherry and mini Roma tomatoes, collectively nicknamed, 'snack' tomatoes.
"Sunripe are one of the largest producers of field grown snacking tomatoes in Australia and GP Graders is extremely proud to have partnered with Luke and Jason to deliver a world-class grading machine that is redefining what's possible when combining technology with agriculture," said Stuart Payne Director at GP Graders.
"The initial results are impressive to say the least. Over 240,000 pieces per hour with excellent defect detection has meant Sunripe have been able to maintain supply of only the highest quality, fresh produce on the shelf, all the while saving substantial labour costs in the packing shed."
MultiView, the new camera system recently launched, captures the whole picture. Vision defect detection is only as effective as the surfaces it can physically see so an extra 6 cameras have been added to either side of the image capture module of the grader to now record 72 images of each individual piece of fruit. This volume of data is intelligently processed by a proprietary RT Unit, high-end hardware and an incredibly intricate and custom built software suite gpVision™, that assures the maximum level of successful defect detection is achieved.
"Sunripe produce snack tomatoes 365 days of the year, in immense volumes, so investing in a grading solution had to take in consideration build quality, service and support offered and assurances that promises could be delivered on. After only 3 months in, all reports are positive. Defect detection is identifying a large amount of any of the problem fruit. Colour grading is near perfect and accurate size grading is ensuring the right product ends up in the consumers hands."
The machine built was a custom design to suit the Sunripe pack-house specifically and was integrated in to existing in-feed systems.
"GP Graders' years of experience has ensured a complete understanding of the specific needs and objectives of Sunripe and the results are speaking for themselves. With further business growth on the horizon and the successful results thus far, a second AirJet® Grader is in the pipeline and as such will mean the retiring all their existing sorting equipment. It is exciting times ahead."