Market demands for fruit consistency - whether by weight or colour, diameter and shape – underscores the need for automation. The Vizier Cup Sizer provides unequalled dimension sizing and colour grading accuracy. Integrating considerable software functionality, the system manages cumulative production figures per orchard or per packer, as well as overall production costs for labour and productivity statistics. What’s more, with its superb flexibility, the sizer can be upgraded easily from a weight-only configuration to optics.
Ideal for non-uniform fruit such as pears, avocadoes, mangoes and apples, the system has a sturdy, hygienic construction with either a floating three- or fixed four-point weighing cup system. With a throughput of up to five cups a second per lane, the sizer is accurate in weighing the fruit to ± one gram on the three-point system.
The electro-optical system has configurable features which can be adapted to the precise packhouse application requirements. Of note are:
- Accurate multiple weighing samples per fruit with high precision load cells and signal conditioning to eliminate vibration noise. To ensure consistently accurate readings, it compensates for temperature fluctuations
- Multiple views of the fruit captured for analysis with highly advanced digital cameras and vision technology, while compensating for fruit orientation variations
- Sorting fruit to combinations of characteristic dimensions, volumetric size, colour and weight. Dimensions can be specified in terms of pole or middle diameter, and then either the longest, shortest or average of these. The system also can identify fruit of specific dimension for which the weight doesn’t correlate to the expected specification
- Extensive diagnostic operator tools are available for systematic problems
- Uneven chain stretching can be identified
- Multiple sorting programs can be configured, stored and recalled
Vizier guarantees its sizer systems to perform to specification if maintenance and support guidelines are followed. By using internet- and web-based technologies, the system software now contains tools enabling customers to perform their own diagnostics.
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- Windows-based application with graphic display and configuration
- SQL real-time database
- Reports of sorted fruit statistics per variety per grower/orchard/batch, cumulative reports per variety per grower. Also, it can be configured to run in either sample sizer or continuous mode
- Integrated system diagnostics
- Integrated system maintenance functionality
- Managing up to four grades to any combination of the available lanes
- Real-time graphs of sorted statistics
- Optional software functionality allows packer performance and throughput monitoring, as well as implementing traceability labeling
- Bins tipped, fruit back into bins, pallets produced and consigned are other stock management functions available
Mechanical
- System height adjustable by ±100mm
- Length and distances between packing tables can be adapted to suit packhouse requirements
- Separate fruit rotation control for the singulator and camera sections
- Overhead in-feed brush with motor and speed adjustment
- Two common fixed speed drive motors power all product belts
- Lubrication strips are installed for the load cell platforms
- Flexible lane configuration from one to eight
- Fruit release per drop is via a drop board onto the product belts. Brush damping can be added
- Special timing gear to enable retard-advance adjustments for the transfer timing from the singulator rollers to the cups
- Damping cylinders are implemented per lane to damp the transfer impact from the singulator rollers to the cups
- Stainless steel dog housing covers the chains on the singulator and camera sections
