Determining whether a blueberry is hard or soft has been made too easy with the use of a blueberry sorting machine based on infrared light technology, says Mariusz Och, sales manager for Polish machinery manufacturer Green Sort: "During MacFrut, we've presented our blueberry sorting machine. We call it NIR 632 because it's based on infrared light technology. The machine can check whether the blueberries are hard or soft because we have a type of camera that sends infrared light through the blueberries. Soft blueberries absorb the light, which means they show up as dark dots on the camera. The healthy, hard, ripe blueberries reflect in the light. So they are a lot lighter when showing up on the camera. Because we can recognise which blueberry is soft and which isn't, we can also recognize the various stages of the fruit and manipulate them accordingly."
When asked if the machine could actually see the damage inside the blueberry, Och stated the camera is not that advanced yet, but the results can be the same as if you're actually looking inside the berry. "Looking inside the blueberry is a different thing. Our camera can see through, but it's not as advanced as it could actually inspect the damage inside a blueberry. However, whenever there is damage inside, the fruit is usually soft, so the damage is something we can recognize, based just on the softness of the fruit. And of course, once we determine a blueberry is soft, we can check the exterior to see if the coloring is perhaps wrong as well. So the machine is capable of weeding out the damaged blueberries, even if that damage is on the inside."
According to Och, Green Sort has made an effort to keep the cost of the machine as low as possible, by keeping the machine itself as simple as they can: "The simplicity of our machine is what makes it unique, as it is designed to be as simple as possible. This means there aren't many parts that can break down or will need to be replaced, which is always a very expensive cost. And because of its simplicity, the price of the machine itself is also reduced as much as possible. As a result, the machine is really affordable for both small and medium-sized farmers, with the ability that this machine gives them, putting fruits into the market after using a machine like this, it's a game changer for many farmers," he concludes.
For more information:
Mariusz Och
Green Sort
Tel: +48 796 330 769
Email: [email protected]
www.greensort.pl