TOMRA Sorting Food is set to launch its new potato processing machine TOMRA 5A at Pack Expo in Chicago.
Processors can visit booth E 7335 in the Upper Lakeside Center to learn more about the brand’s new sorting machine and view a demonstration.
The TOMRA 5A supports processors by combining a straightforward graphical user interface with stable sorting performance and an increased level of food safety and quality with minimal product waste.
With food safety and quality being a top priority for consumers and processors, this innovative machine aims to achieve optimum performance with the new peel control module, an extra add-on system. The TOMRA 5A also boasts a high-sort capacity at 55t of potatoes an hour.
The peel control module can connect to multiple sorting machines and takes potato data from the TOMRA 5A sorter for dependable measurements of peel removal levels. Process control techniques are used to achieve the desired peel removal and the optimal steam time is calculated and sent directly to the steam peeler.
Consequently, the result is lower peel loss and less food waste, with no operator supervision required.
The TOMRA 5A ensures superior foreign material removal, effectively discarding items such as corn cobs, wood, stems, plastics, and glass. This process minimises the risk of food contamination further down the line and leads to improved product quality.
The sorter also has improved sanitation features, which have been designed and developed in accordance with the latest food hygiene standards and specifications.
Furthermore, the TOMRA 5A has unrivaled potato quality sorting controls. This provides processors with the opportunity to recover products that are not good enough to accept, but are not bad enough to send to waste. The leftover product can be sent to re-peel or trimming lines or made into an alternative end product, such as potato flakes.
Moreover, the TOMRA 5A has an intuitive, unique and functional graphical user interface design, which makes it convenient to use for all operators. TOMRA ACT, the brand-new graphical user interface, encompasses a one screen layout so users can see all critical sort information and real-time sorting data at a glance. Quick monitoring and fast adjustments are possible at all times, which means the customer is always in control and can easily optimise the sort themselves.
The interface is dynamic, responsive, and easy to use, resulting in a sharper learning curve and quicker training to proficiency for operators.
TOMRA’s marketing unit manager Jim Frost comments: "A faster response to varying product conditions, with an output of more consistent product quality and higher yields, is now possible regardless of who is operating the TOMRA 5A. There is no longer a need for a specialist to operate and adjust the sorter."
Furthermore, the TOMRA 5A contains 24 hours of sorting statistics, which makes it possible to review all data within an operator-specified time window. The on-screen display of potato quality data and size distribution is quick to access, with easy-to-read graphic displays of production for all or part of the day. Detailed product data is also available.
Lastly, another new feature of the sorting machine is the self-monitoring capability. The system will alert the plant of detected issues affecting the sorter’s operation and performance.
Jim concludes: "The TOMRA 5A sorter, equipped with TOMRA ACT, represents the latest innovation in whole product sorting systems technology. This sorter has improved performance and added functionality to help customers address the increasing demands on the processor for food safety assurance, improved yields and lower running costs."
TOMRA will be present at Pack Expo between 6 November and 9 November.
