Fps Food Processing Systems, B.v.

Leonardus Paulus Crezee

Josse Guillaume De Baerdemaeker

Peter Coucke

A system for sorting and packaging products, chosen from the group consisting of eggs and fruit (), the system comprising: &#x2014;a sorting machine with at least one single sorting track () with carriers; &#x2014;at least one sensor for determining at least one characteristic of each product (); &#x2014;the control being adapted to classify a said product in accordance with the at least one characteristic; &#x2014;a plurality of packaging conveyors () for supplying and discharging packaging units, such as boxes, crates or trays, crossing the sorting track and extending above the sorting track; &#x2014;wherein adjacent each packaging conveyor a transferring device () is provided at the level of or higher than the packaging conveyor, arranged for taking over a said product from a carrier and for placing the product from above into a packaging unit () on the corresponding packaging conveyor.

System for sorting and packaging fruit

The present invention relates to a system for determining characteristics of products of generally unequal size, e.g. apples, which are conveyed on product carriers, such as rollers of a conveying apparatus, and pass the system, the system comprising a detection device, arranged at some distance from the products, having a transmitter section and a receiver section, as well as a signal processing unit for processing signals to and from the system, including the signals of the receiver section for determining the characteristics, the system further comprising: a sensor which, prior to the passage of a product, scans the size of each passing product and produces a corresponding scanning signal, and a displacement device, for positioning, in accordance with each scanning signal, at least the receiver section of the detection device at a well-defined distance during the passage of each product. With such a system, in an advantageous manner, on-line, characteristics such as firmness and sugar content of fruits can be determined. These characteristics can be used real-time as a selection criterion during sorting of large amounts of fruits.

Detection system for sorting apparatus

In a method for determining the hardness of a product, for instance fruit, during a measuring cycle, comprising: supporting the product, tapping the product with a tapping device at least one position of the product, as a result of which the product as a whole is set in its natural vibration and produces vibration signals, sensing the vibration signals with a signal sensor, and processing the vibration signals with a signal processing device, in which the hardness FRi of the product is determined, and further comprising: sensing the signals produced by the tapping device with a second signal sensor, processing the vibration signals with a second signal processing device, the elastic properties of the product being determined in a volume range around the above at least one position, determining the hardness FIi of the product, comparing FIi and FRi and checking the comparison with a pre-adjusted value, the tapping and sensing with the second signal sensor being repeated when the comparison does not satisfy the pre-adjusted value, the hardness can be advantageously determined, in particular intended for labeling products when selecting and subsequently sorting fruit. A device for carrying out this method can be used both for desk-top applications and for on-line determinations on sorting machines.

Growing community of inventors

Snelrewaard, Netherlands

Leonardus Paulus Crezee