TOMRA Sorting Food is set to unveil its latest Modus size grader at INTERPOM | PRIMEURS (booth 110) in Kortrijk Xpo, Belgium, from 23-25 November.
Previously, the majority of washed potato sizing was done by mechanical means, because up until now, there was no high-volume optical food sorter that came close to the traditional mechanical grids, square meshes and roller sizers.
TOMRA Sorting Food market unit manager whole products sorting Jim Frost said: "There are limits to these mechanical food sorting processes, including that almost all mechanical sorters in use today only grade by width. To address this issue, TOMRA Sorting Food’s development team has designed the Modus, which can sort washed potatoes by width and length, or a combination of both."
The Modus size grader, which delivers high throughput, up to 45,000kg/h, is available as a standalone size grader or integrated with the Halo, Sentinel II or Titan, for quality and size grading.
The Modus’ operation is simple and effective. After alignment by a simple shaker and conveyor, a unique new TOMRA imaging module and electromagnetic diversion system is used to gently divert the potatoes of selected sizes into three different exits.
The Modus is also supported by the new intuitive and user-friendly TOMRA user interface.
Frost added: "The new user interface makes settings for grading easy. Length and width ranges, or a combination of both, are set in a few simple steps using the touch screen. In addition, the screen allows customers to view live product data, which can be saved for use at a later date for traceability or analysis purposes, for example."
The pulsed-LED sensor optics, proven on the Titan and Halo sorting platforms, is an important feature of the Modus, producing stability and accuracy on high-volume whole potatoes.
Frost continued: "The sorting results are very impressive. The Modus is ultra-reliable and very stable. Together with the long-life illumination and the gentle high-speed lift-drop separator, which directs the potatoes into different grades, the Modus makes sure that our customers will benefit from accurate size grading."
