"Compared to replacing an entire sorter, upgrading is less expensive and less disruptive, yet achieves like-new sorter performance," the company claims.
Optical sorters are used for food products like fruits, vegetables, nets, potato strips, snack foods, confectionary and seafood. They are used to detect and remove defects and foreign material fromsuch products.
Key Technology says many of its customers are using a wide assortment of legacy optical sorting systems the company produced as long as 20 years ago. The company's upgrade program will helpcustomers with early generation sorters for which replacement parts have become scarce.
The program updates the electronics and optics in the legacy sorters. The upgrade program applies to the VHS-Optisort, the Kroma-Sort, Opti-Sort II, ColorSort II, ADR II, ADR III, Prism and TobaccoSorter II systems.
Processors using the company's newer systems can also use the upgrade program. Key Technology says the upgrade will provide the most benefits to those with machines at least 10 years old.
The upgrade includes the installation of new colour and optical cameras. It includes the installation of an broadband connection. This will help users to get future improvements to the system, suchas more efficient removal of defective products from the processing line and better recovery rates.
A new processing module features new computer technology to allow more subtle feature identification.
"Many customers will benefit immediately from enhanced performance capabilities, such as sorting based on product size or shape or defining a defective product based on where the defectlies on the product," Key Technology stated.
The upgrade includes a color touchscreen control panel that reduces operator training requirements and simplifies the control of the sorter.
Real-time diagnostics will help companies reduce costly downtime and detect conditions that could hinder the machine's optical inspection capabilities, the company stated.