Page 48 - Food and Drink Business Magazine May 2019

PRODUCT NEWS
KEY TECHNOLOGY EXPANDS SORTING
KEY Technology is expanding its food sorting capabilities with new sort-to-grade (STG) software for VRYX digital sorters. The new patented STG software is field proven for potato strips and is now available for other food sorting applications, including processed and fresh fruits and vegetables as well as nuts.
A STG-enabled sorter dynamically evaluates each decision based on the impact on the aggregate ‘in the bag’ grade, which has been defined by the processor compared to traditional sorting processes.
Heat and Control represents – and has a strategic partnership with – Key Technology in Australia, New Zealand and India.
STG can increase yields by one to three per cent as it accurately delivers complex final product
TREOTHAM’S WEAR-RESISTANT
SLIDING PLATES
TREOTHAM Automation has released five highly abrasion- resistant Iglidur sliding Igus plate strips. The new strips are made from high-performance plastics to give more geometric design options.
Treotham’s high-performance Igus plastics are routinely used in situations such as food technology that require freedom from lubricant, corrosion and maintenance.
The new strips give users more design freedom in terms of geometry when designing their wear-resistant special solution. The sliding plates are manufactured in a newly built production facility in Cologne, France. Advances in in-house development and production will see Iglidur plate strips in different thicknesses and lengths up to two metres. Currently they are offered are in a 15mm thickness and 160mm widths.
There are 50 high-performance Igus polymers as plain bearings in the Treotham range. The company also offers 27 of its materials as bar stock so customers can use the high-performance polymers to mill custom solutions and small batches themselves or order them from Treotham.
ABB FORGES NEW GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP
THE partnership between ABB and Dassault Systèmes aims to provide digital industries with a unique software solutions portfolio.
It will combine ABB Ability digital solutions with Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform to provide end-to-end advanced open digital solutions.
The combined solution is designed to enhance the competitiveness of industrial companies, while increasing
flexibility, speed and productivity of the lifecycles, manufacturing and operations of products.
The companies will focus, in stages, on factory automation and robotics, process industry automation, and electrification solutions for smart buildings.
IOT COMPANY TO
LIGHT UP MEDICAL
CANNABIS
AUSTRALIAN IoT company Vivid Technology is looking for global agribusiness partners, including the medical cannabis market, for its intelligent lighting solutions.
The company plans to develop high-energy efficiency solutions for the horticulture and medical cannabis lighting markets.
Vivid says its patented technology will “deliver significant energy efficiency, substantially reducing both lighting operating costs and energy consumption, providing customers with a sustainable strategic competitive advantage”.
It will design, specify and supply an optimised MATRIXX intelligent lighting control and Klarity reporting systems, which will support the specific requirements for controlled-environment horticulture markets. This includes the highly regulated medical cannabis cultivation industry.
Vivid says it will leverage its experience and technological developments to help solve what it sees is one of the major challenges in the industry today, the cost and efficiency levels of lighting of green/ glass-houses.
Food and agribusiness is a USD$5 trillion industry that represents 10 per cent of global consumer spending. The total medical cannabis market was worth US$16 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow to US$79 billion by 2025.
specifications without operator intervention, Key Technology (part of Duravant) says.
STG recognises and categorises the visual and structural characteristics of individual objects in the product stream. This allows a specified amount of low- and middle- severity defects to pass, while ejecting all high-severity defects and foreign material.
Discolouration may be considered a defect only if it exceeds a certain absolute or relative dimension or if it occurs in combination with other defects on the same object.
Processors can eliminate mechanical size grading equipment by using a STG-enabled sorter to control products’ dimensional characteristics. The possibilities are endless, Key Technology says.
48 | Food&Drink business | May 2019 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au