Fastest In The West Now Also Biggest

Fastest In The West Now Also Biggest

Fruit and vegetable sorting technology from Compac Sorting Equipment has pipped a number of US, French and Dutch companies at the post.

The company has just won a big contract to supply what is believed to be the world's longest sizer and colour sorting machine, to the USA.

The 87 long metre monster, with 12 lanes and 58 sorting destinations, is double the average size of conventional units. It is the result of an effective partnership between designers and manufacturers, Compac, and the distributor, Van Doren Sales, fruit handling equipment maestros.

The Broetje Orchard deal has put a further seal of approval on the Compac hardware and software that is on the expansion trail in packhouses across Washington State. Initially Broetje installed a Compac' brain transplant' (with new electronics and camera technology). Compac's Business Development Manager, David Buys, says the company's innovative ' brain transplants' are a good opportunity for customers to upgrade equipment by replacing outmoded operating systems.

"Using Compac's electronics and software, they are getting quantifiable improvements in grading accuracy and flexibility for a fraction of the cost of a complete new sizer," he says. "The weight and color grading system can be used in conjunction with most other brands of sorting and sizing machines, so retrofitting Compac "intelligence" onto competitor sizers gives pack houses immediate access to Compac's more advanced systems."

According to David Buys, the customer was so delighted with the outcome that the mega-deal was a logical next step.

And where speed and accuracy equal cost efficiencies, Compac is rated as having the fastest system in the world, "but it has to be slowed down for the US Northwest Varieties " says Buys.

Compac has been a strong player in the NZ fruit and vegetable sorting sector since its 1984, when it began supplying fruit grading equipment to the domestic (New Zealand) kiwifruit industry. Since then, it has grown to become an internationally recognised supplier of leading-edge technology to the fresh produce industry.

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