Laser sorter scans products for chlorophyll

Investment in optical sorters has increased due to industry pressures to improve food quality and safety.

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 from such products and attempt to improve the historical trade-off between product quality and yield.

Key Technology claims its FluoRaptor uses the most powerful laser in the food industry to find smallest defects in products.

As well as scanning for chlorophyll, the laser also examines shape, size and colour.

The tri-chromatic camera can be configured via the control panel to sense a combination of visible color and infrared light and does not require complicated changeovers to alter settings, the company claims.

Detecting differing levels of chlorophyll, the sorter can differentiate peas from the same-color pod, vine, and leaf whether product is fresh, frozen or cooked.

The FluoRaptor can also be used to remove the husk and shank from corn.

Fresh cut produce can be examined for insects and other foreign material, which is then removed.

The laser image is displayed in full colour, allowing an operator to make quick selections of those objects to be kept.

Images and setups can be stored on the G6 computer hard drive, remotely, or on a USB key for quick retrieval and re-use.

The high power laser is protected by the only Class 1 laser enclosure in the industry, claims Key.

FluoRaptor is available on Key's narrow-belt Optyx 3000, designed for smaller operations and its wide-belt Optyx 6000 sorters, which can handle larger volumes of produce.

Key has manufacturing plants in the US, the Netherlands and Australia.