Live from Macfrut (Italy): UNI ROBOTIC, the robotics division of UNITEC is born

Italy

Tuesday 07 September 2021

UNITEC presents several innovative solutions, such as UNI INTELLIGENT WEIGHT SOLUTION, UNI INTELLIGENT PUNNET PACK and UNIQ KIWI.

The UNITEC group at Macfrut 2021 (Pavilion B1 - Stand 075). The UNITEC Group brings all the technological excellence that has characterized it for more than 95 years to ensure new effective responses to the needs of Fruit and Vegetable Centers around the world. Macfrut 2021 is the opportunity to present the technological innovations that have been the subject of UNITEC's work in recent years to help Fruit and Vegetable Plants around the world achieve their business objectives.

First, UNI Robotic, the new division of UNITEC specializing in intelligent robotic solutions; it came from the desire to provide an innovative and efficient technological response to the needs of Fruit and Vegetable Plants, in particular in terms of reducing labor costs in the treatment process thanks to the use of anthropomorphic and non-anthropomorphic robots, capable of guaranteeing, on the one hand, a strong increase in yield and, on the other hand, a significant increase in efficiency and precision in handling the fruit.

But UNITEC's innovation does not stop there. Each year, UNITEC provides the world of fruit and vegetables with innovative solutions covering all phases of the processing of fresh fruit and vegetables, from emptying to packaging, including sorting of packaged goods and automatic palletization. , without forgetting an exact and precise classification of the external and internal quality and of all the organoleptic characteristics which relate to it; all this is done on each fruit thanks to dedicated transport systems for each of them and specific high-precision vision systems developed in-house by the Research & Development team.

At UNITEC, we continue to innovate relentlessly, on all fronts, with particular emphasis on the classification of internal quality thanks to the technologies of the UNIQ range dedicated to each type of fruit (UNIQ Kiwi, for the classification of quality internal quality of green and yellow kiwis; UNIQ Plum, dedicated to the internal quality classification of all the many varieties of plums, whether they have yellow or red flesh; UNIQ Apples, dedicated to apples; UNIQ Peach, dedicated to peaches and with nectarines; UNIQ Cherry, dedicated to cherries; UNIQ Melon, dedicated to melons, etc.).

Many new UNITEC and Unisorting products are presented at Macfrut 2021, with particular emphasis on automation and robotics for the reduction of processing costs.

. UNI INTELLIGENT PACK: intelligent robotic technology capable of positioning the apples inside the cells so that all the petioles are oriented in the same direction. This technology, moreover, combined with the Apples Sort 3 vision system, for the classification of the external quality of apples, through color detection, allows to combine the orientation of the petioles with the most colorful part of the fruit, this in order to guarantee an arrangement of the apples inside the packaging as pleasant and as attractive as possible to the consumer.

. UNI INTELLIGENT WEIGHT SOLUTION: robotic technology capable of intelligently adjusting the filling of boxes of kiwifruit according to the weight set. This system, in fact, in the event of non-compliance of the weight of the box with the initially defined weight, allows the robot to intervene by removing or adding fruit to reach the desired weight of the box, without ever exceeding the fixed weight. , which would harm the revenues of the Central Fruits and Vegetables.

. UNI INTELLIGENT PUNNET PACK: the innovative technological system that allows the baskets to be picked up 2 by 2 and placed inside the crate until it is completely full. This system eliminates manual packaging altogether, increasing efficiency and significantly reducing costs.

.UNIQ KIWI: the innovative technology of UNITEC for the classification of the internal quality of kiwis, whether they are varieties with green or yellow flesh. This system is able to reveal every characteristic of the flesh and every organoleptic secret of the fruit. UNIQ Kiwi classifies the internal quality of kiwis in a non-invasive way, preserving all the valuable properties of each fruit. Equipped with high resolution sensors, UNIQ Kiwi is able to detect internal quality parameters such as Brix Degree, Dry Matter and flesh color with unmatched reliability and precision.

. PEARS SORT 3: the vision system from Unisorting, a brand of the UNITEC Group, which has brought about a real revolution in the field of grading the quality of pears. This unique system in the world is able to visualize the pear in its entirety, at 360 degrees, without stressing it during the rotation of the individual fruits: a major advantage given the delicacy and the difficulty of handling this fruit due to the its particular shape.

UNITEC is an international group, made up of 13 subsidiaries operating all over the world, specializing in the design and implementation of innovative technologies, developed and produced 100% in-house, dedicated to the treatment, calibration, classification of quality and packaging of fresh fruits and vegetables. For more than 95 years, in fact, UNITEC's mission has been to improve the quality of processing of fruits and vegetables in the more than 65 countries where it works.

UNITEC's technologies are highly specialized and dedicated to the processing and classification of internal and external quality of different varieties of fruits such as apples, pears, cherries, apricots, blueberries, plums, peaches, nectarines, melons, tomatoes, etc. In total, the types of fruits for which UNITEC has designed and implemented dedicated technologies number more than 35, thus contributing in a concerted and vigorous manner to the development of trade in these products.