Dutch consortium uses delta robots for sorting

In nowadays market profitability is constantly under pressure, the vegetable market is no exception to that. The agrifood sector suffers from rising labor costs but requires a flexible solution for handling and packing of natural products.
Beltech BV and Christiaens Agro systems have translated these needs into a solution.

Eliminating manual labor from the process reduces costs and at the same time can improve efficiency and accuracy.

“Our solution is called SortiFlex for a good reason, since each item from the bulk harvested crop is individually graded, sorted and packed in a flexible manner”, - explains Ron van Dooren from Beltech BV.

The joint solution of Christiaens and Beltech relies on technologies which both companies built up in the past decades.

Ron van Dooren describes that from a bunker with bulk products, a transportation-belt feeds single products in a continuous flow through a 3D vision-setup. Software-algorithms perform real-time grading and provide the sorting advice to the machine-controls.

A set of delta robots does the actual sorting, placing each individual graded product on its calculated destination on one of the four output lines.

“The first system contains six robots and is installed in Canada, running at one pick per second for each robot, resulting in 20.000 picks per hour”, - ends Mr. van Dooren.

To learn more visit Beltech BV and Christiaens Agro systems at Fruit Logistica (Berlin, February 6-8), Hall 9, Stand E01.


For contact:
www.beltech.nl
www.christiaensagro.com