Integrating artificial vision and robotics into stone fruit packing allows for the standardization of fruit orientation, reducing repetitive mistakes and sustaining high speeds without relying on hiring surges. The goal is to ensure each peach or nectarine is placed with its most attractive side visible, with consistent positioning and a steady line flow, even during busy periods.
Maf Roda is enhancing its R&D strategy by implementing robotized solutions aimed at automating the packing of honeycombed crates. The company offers two methods—Fast Pack and Line Pack—that cater to various warehouse conditions such as space availability, capacity needs, and format flexibility. Both approaches, however, share a common goal: leveraging robotization to improve efficiency while maintaining presentation quality.
© Roda Ibérica S.L.
Fast Pack stands out for its compact design, an attribute especially valued in environments with limited operational space. The system fits fruit into boxes with cell trays and orients them according to defined parameters, using artificial vision to immediately identify the most suitable side and place them in the pre-established orientation. This combination of accuracy and speed allows for high productivity, reduces operator variability, and ensures a consistent product appearance at the point of sale. Additionally, switching between different case types is quick and easy, providing flexibility for the packaging line when different formats are needed.
Line Pack is designed for packing facilities aiming to significantly increase their capacity. It employs coordinated delta robots (usually six per line), which leverage proven technology from other industries, such as apple processing, and adapt it for stone fruit. An artificial vision system scans each fruit's surface, determines the most attractive side, and places it correctly in the honeycombed box. The robots operate in harmony, replacing difficult manual tasks and enabling high, consistent production rates. This reliability is crucial for meeting delivery deadlines and maintaining quality presentation across batches.
© Roda Ibérica S.L.Robotics has become essential in fruit and vegetable warehouses, especially for stone fruit, where it significantly impacts packing, a traditionally manual process where presentation uniformity, speed, and gentle handling influence the commercial success. Currently, due to labor shortages and rising demands, automation is essential not just for future growth but for maintaining competitiveness and ensuring continuous production.
Beyond just speed, these solutions primarily focus on consistency: consistently orienting the fruit using the same criteria, minimizing unnecessary handling, and maintaining uniform packaging to enhance perceived value. For warehouses, robotics also offers resilience by supporting continuous production during staff shortages, managing peaks in incoming fruit, and enabling more reliable planning. In the pursuit of post-harvest efficiency, packing automation is becoming a crucial factor in determining the overall profitability of the campaign.
The shift to highly automated installations is now a reality in the industry and is advancing alongside labor availability and market quality standards. With Fast Pack and Line Pack, Maf Roda addresses packaging, a key aspect of post-harvest handling for stone fruit. They offer robotic solutions to increase productivity and quality, providing flexible formats and final presentations that align with distribution requirements.
© Roda Ibérica S.L.For more information:
Maf Roda Group
www.mafroda.com
