A Word on Whole Potato Sorting

With the recent press release and emailing to many of you (http://www.key.net/about/news/optyx-wps/default.html), a few comments are in order:

To get to the details, click on the above link, and then click on the "Optyx WPS for Whole Potatoes" link on the page. It will take you to our brochure and a video clip that shows the concept. We think it will be quite a bit different from what you have seen before in whole potato sorting, in several ways:

Minimal product drop. Most whole potato systems drop the potato about a meter or more, this one less than half that. Avoiding such elevation drops will help with many line layouts, preventing the need for a downstream elevation step.

Gentle product handling. The minimal drop, along with the gentle deflector action enable this. Many applications need very gentle product handling to avoid later discoloration.

Laser identification of foreign materials. Laser has been proven to do this extremely well in many applications, but has not yet been applied to whole potato 3-way sorting. Now the power of laser is combined with high resolution cameras to identify practically everything that is not a potato, and remove it.

Air ejection of foreign materials. Most other systems use mechanical paddles. They work well, as long as the foreign material falls like a potato- same trajectory and speed. Problem is, foreign materials are not potatoes (by definition), and so many categories do not fall like potatoes. Think about plastic films and worker's gloves. The Optyx system sends an air blast just a few millimeters after the laser identifies the object. Point blank, it can't miss. Check out the video- seeing is believing.

Ant the end of the discussion, I am excited about what we are bringing to the industry. No more same ole, same ole. If you are serious about foreign material removal, take a close look at our system, and come to the Potato Convention (http://www.potatoconvention.com/)- I will give a presentation on foreign material control that might be of interest.

Tim

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