Sorting machinery for seed and grain industry: have a hands-on experience to select the best-matching solution

The main reason for the increasing popularity of seeds and grain is income growth in highly-populated developing countries. 

The other reason is the evolving trend for healthy products, especially in developed countries. More and more, purchasers are looking for “clean-label” products containing natural ingredients, which means that seeds and grains are being included in more foods than ever before. One of the best-selling products are bakery goods, bread, and snack bars.

Market researchers project that during the next 5 years, the seed market will grow in annual value at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6-8%, increasing from $63bn in 2020 to $85 - 90bn in 2025. In the same period, the grain market is projected to grow at a CAGR by 6%, from $1.150bn to $1.556bn. 

Processing

The main challenge that processors face is that new sales conquests probably will be made in export markets that  will not tolerate product imperfections. This is why the capacity of processing lines to detect and eject foreign materials, cross-contaminated products, mycotoxin, aflatoxin, and defective products became extremely important.

For example, mycotoxin and aflatoxin are naturally-occurring poisons that can contaminate corn kernels intended for human and pet consumption, can prove lethal for pets, and yet are very hard to detect.

The other point is that processors must pay more attention to food waste reduction. It is no longer acceptable to utilize obsolete sorting methods that discard huge amounts of good products while rejecting bad ones. Rejecting too much good-in-bad is giving up potential income. 

The emergence of genetically modified crops is another problem that will become widespread in the near future. Although the sale of GM products will become more commonplace, they are unlikely to be selected by the majority of shoppers or even accepted by all countries. Producers should prevent cross-contamination, resulting in products containing unintended ingredients such as soy, which is an allergen.

TOMRA Food offers sorting solutions to perform tasks of different complexity. These machines are calibrated for certain food applications and extremely effective for various types of grain and seed. TOMRA machines sort seed and feed corn, lentils, chickpeas, dry beans, dry peas, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and coffee beans. 

These machines can grade to specification, boost removal efficiency, lower false rejects, and lower or eliminate dependence on manual labor. 

Machines by TOMRA are easy to maintain and to keep clean. Their sorting performance remains stable even if working conditions are dusty or subject to high temperature. Users say there is little or no degradation in sorting performance from the start of a shift to the end.

Solutions for all tastes

Being equipped with high-resolution cameras, x-ray, lasers, near-infrared (NIR) optical sensors, and Biometric Signature Identification technology,  these sorting machines can inspect materials according to their color, shape, structure, and biological characteristics. 

The best-suited TOMRA machines to grains and seeds are the Ixus Bulk, Zea, Nimbus BSI+ and TOMRA 3C

The Ixus Bulk has the latest x-ray and imaging technology to detect high-density foreign materials such as stones, metal, plastics, and glass. 

The Zea, designed specifically for the seed corn, is an affordable sensor-based machine for sorting and grading ear corn husk, disease, defects and size. 

The TOMRA 3C has high-resolution cameras with LED lighting and laser or NIR units to eliminate foreign materials and defects. This compact and affordable machine needs very little floor space and features an intuitive TOMRA ACT user interface.

The Tomra 3C’s dual laser-induced scattering results in precise glass and foreign material removal. Its double-sided RGB cameras, combined with LED lighting, remove the subtlest shape and color defects. The high-speed ejection valve provides a low rate of false rejects, while intelligent auto-cleaning maintains the optimum performance of the machine. Finally, its control interface is easy for operators to use due to a large touch screen that shows application-specific tuning parameters.

The Nimbus BSI+ is equipped with lasers with NIR, visible spectroscopy, and BSI+ scanner, which is capable of detecting objects’ biometric characteristics. It is also a free-fall machine: a feed shaker or hopper evenly spreads the product over the free-fall chute, and after the product passes to the inspection zone, it is scanned by lasers, cameras, or BSI+, or all of them. Then the defects are hit with an air burst which sends them to the rejection zone while the good product continues its natural free-fall. 

The Nimbus can detect both chemical and color composition in the same pass, and remove unwanted materials that would remain undetected by other sorters.

To guarantee that operators use machines at their full potential, TOMRA offers on-site training for customers. TOMRA Visual Assist, the recently-launched smartphone app, enables TOMRA field service engineers and customers to work together even when they are on distance. 

TOMRA invites food producers to try TOMRA’s machines in action at their nearest Test and Demonstration Centre. There are 8 demo centers in Chile, Belgium, Turkey, China, India, Japan, Ireland and California. 

For more information about TOMRA, see the webpage