TOMRA Fresh Food launches new Dynamic Lane Balancer at its Innovation Expo
TOMRA Fresh Food, the leading provider of post-harvest integrated solutions for the fresh food industry, has announced the launch of its Dynamic Lane Balancer and the appointment of new Global Category Directors for Citrus and Avocados. Fresh produce members will gather for the 2021 Innovation Expo at the TOMRA Fresh Food office in Visalia, California taking place on October 28th.
Dynamic lane balancer launches
The TOMRA Fresh Food Dynamic Lane Balancer solves challenging infeeds by automatically optimizing the flow of fruit on the sorter. This helps to maximize cup-fill across all lanes, delivering higher throughput and packout results. The new system enables packhouses to get the most out of their investment in technology, especially in challenging environments, by removing infeed bottlenecks and improving overall performance.
Australian-based packer and exporter Mildura Fruit Company is an excellent example of how the Dynamic Lane Balancer can take line utilization to a new level - delivering significant improvements in efficiency, yields and profitability across commodity types.
PRECISE PERFORMANCE WITH NO COMPROMISE ON VARIOUS COMMODITY TYPES
The Dynamic Lane Balancer’s intelligent software engine automatically adjusting the flow of fruit to always ensure a consistent fruit distribution. As the physical characteristics of the fruit change batch-to-batch or between varieties or even different fruit types, the system makes fully-automatic adjustments to find the optimal flow.
“Getting the most out of our investments is extremely important and the Dynamic Lane Balancer has delivered much better distribution across our infeed. This means we can run our machine at optimal levels without compromise.” – Perry Hill, General Manager, Mildura Fruit Company
The real-time software engine allows the Dynamic Lane Balancer to react to the many variables that exist within the packhouse, adjusting automatically.
“The power of the Dynamic Lane Balancer is that it can automatically adjust between different batches and fruit types. This industry is all about the detail, and big oranges roll and pool on the belts, differently to small ones – then lemons behave completely differently again. This is very important because it is the small differences in your process that can add up to big differences in your packout.”
The automation that the TOMRA Fresh Food Dynamic Lane Balancer delivers gives you the confidence that your sorter is always running at peak performance and helping deliver optimal packout.
“The Dynamic Lane Balancer is basically set and forget – it takes the guess work out of things and automatically optimizes the fruit flow for whatever fruit you are running”.
HELPING TO DELIVER IMPROVED GENTLE HANDLING
A more even distribution of fruit across your sorter ensures that the packing line will be running at optimal levels. This reduces the occurrence of double cupping or bridged fruit which could potentially lead to bruising or fruit damage.
“Since installing the Dynamic Lane Balancer we have seen a smoother flow of fruit through the line. One of the main benefits here is that it reduces unnecessary recycling. To protect the fruit, you want it to have the simplest path through the machine to the box, so removing any unnecessary recycling can only be good for gentle handling.”
DELIVERING REAL WORLD RESULTS
“If you run variable fruit or multiple commodities like us, then it’s an excellent solution to optimize the throughput. Or if you have a challenging layout and are trying to squeeze a machine in a tight spot, then it would be an absolute must. We have been very pleased with the performance, and I would say that the extra cup fill that the optimized Dynamic Lane Balancer delivers is like adding a whole extra lane to the machine.”
The Dynamic Lane Balancer is an industry first, it is designed for pre-graders and commit to pack sorters and available as both a retrofit option for existing MLS and TOMRA 5S Advanced installations, as well as an option on new machines.
TOMRA Fresh Food hosting 2021 Innovation Expo in Visalia, California
TOMRA Fresh Food will be hosting customers from all over North America at its 2021 Innovation Expo in Visalia, California on Oct. 28.
Industry members can view LUCAi™, its artificial intelligence grading platform for refined classifications and Spectrim, the most powerful optical sorting platform in the industry. And they can learn about their latest cherry solution, the Cascade Singulator and the Dynamic Lane Balancer for throughput optimization.
Joining as special guest speaker is Lisa Cork, owner of Fresh Produce Marketing Ltd, who will share valuable industry insights.
Attendees can also meet with TOMRA Fresh Food's Global Category Directors and Director of Field Services Americas to learn how TOMRA Fresh Food integrated solutions can optimize their post-harvest process.
WHEN: 1pm-5pm, 28 October 2021
WHERE: TOMRA Fresh Food, 728 North American Street, Visalia, CA, 93291
Click here for more information on the event.
Introducing new Global Category Directors for avocados and citrus
Based in Chile, TOMRA is proud to announce its Global Category Director for Avocados, Jacinto Trigo.
Born and raised in Uruguay, with a background in industrial and mechanical engineering, Jacinto joined the TOMRA Fresh Food team 12 years ago. Jacinto has held several positions in the company and his move to Chile gave him the privilege of leading the Latin American sales team. "I was lucky to travel all around the world but mainly across the LATAM region where 70% of the avocado production comes from."
Jacinto is very excited about his new role as Global Category Director for Avocados and looks forward to developing strategies to fully support the Avocado industry.
TOMRA is also pleased to announce its Global Category Director of Citrus, Clinton Jeffries.
Clinton has been in the Californian Fresh Produce industry for more than a decade and believes everything starts with and comes back to people and relationships, both internally and with customers. He prides himself on forming trusting relationships and working to drive solutions that create value for all parties involved, ultimately making people happy! He is a firm believer in working hard and working smart, while ensuring time remains for family, health, and fun.
For more information please contact:
Maura Furniss
Communications and Design Manager TOMRA Fresh Food
+64 22 674 1285