Potato Sorting Equipment

A fast and reliable food sorting machine is essential for all industrial processing companies that prepare potatoes. The potato sorter is the decisive quality control unit to achieve a reliability of product selection and uphold the product quality requirements. As a result of rapid developments, there are different type for sorting machines for potatoes. At Equa we support each client with the specific sorter type is best suited for his operation, defined by the potato grades, sizes or prepared produce. Each optical sorting machine has its own unique characteristics.

Optical Sorter – SOL/SOM

Marcelissen’s Optical Sorter grades the potatoes according to various characteristics, namely size, color, number of defects and size of the defects.

Initially the potatoes are transported to the sorting room on two separate rolls. Within this sorter sorting space, the potato sorter will scan the produce in view of the quality, characteristics, and possible defects. The optical potato sorter is capable of completing 360 degrees scan so that the entire potato is controlled. The high-speed optical sorter achieves this by rotating each potato several times on the roller transport under the camera. All important details are measured for the logic control to determine processing steps.

After the data from the potatoes has been collected, the potato grader then proceeds to the sort of the produce according to the specified criteria. The automatic potato sorter use ‘blow nozzles’ or ‘sliders’ to direct each individual produce unit. The sorter parameters are pre-set based on the previously obtained information, consisting of issues such as quality and specific characteristics. This way of optical potato sorter works very fast and is also very accurate.

Short Piece Sorter – SV

The SV sorter is suitable to control the processed vegetables. The Short Piece Sorter (or Nubbin Grader) is the ideal solution for companies who are looking for a more straightforward potato sorting machine of their potato fries, chips, or peeled potatoes.

This model is perfect for sorting out unusable and small pieces of potato that must be removed from the final product. This sorting machine can also be used for dosing of the products into downstream processing steps. The capacity is 8 tons/hour.

Potato Diameter Sorter – SRL

The Potato Diameter Sorter is a potato size grader which sorts the potatoes (and other tuber vegetables) according to the set diameter. The rollers are placed in a V-profile and infinitely adjusted to an exact dimension to ensure product sizing in the discharge.

The potato size sorter is installed at a slight angle to ensure constant transportation while the actual sorting will take place. The vegetable sorter units are flexible in capacity based on the number of plastic rollers, so that capacities of up to 20 tons/hr can be achieved. The Potato Diameter Sorter can act as a link within a potato processing line, but us often installed as a ‘stand-alone’ unit in its function.

Sliver Remover (Roller Sorter)

After cutting fresh fries, cubes or slices, there are inevitably short and thin pieces in the product stream. After all, potatoes are not squared or rectangular. In order to realize a high quality end product, these short and narrow pieces have to be sorted out, we do this by means of our Sliver Removers.

This sliver remover machine is specially constructed to separate too small product particles and/or waste from sliced and whole products. The main advantage of this sorter is that the roll opening during the production process can be easily, quickly and precisely adjusted from 3 to 23 mm or 4 to 24 mm.

The new generation Sliver Removers are very easy to maintain, the rollers can be adjusted during the production process and no water is needed for cooling and lubricating the bearings. When processing potato products, there is always the possibility to add a spray tube with which the released starch can be rinsed away. All separation rollers have the same rotation direction and are equipped with spirals. This creates a good product distribution, which is very important in achieving a good sorting quality. The product to be sorted moves across the rollers with the direction of rotation of the rollers, whereby breakage is excluded. The waste can be disposed of underneath the machine. A spray tube is mounted above the rollers for the removal of any sticking parts.

The roll opening of Sliver Removers can be adjusted up to a maximum opening of 20 mm between the rollers. Furthermore, nowadays we have a split-sizer where on one machine two halves can be adjusted separately, this gives 3 sorting possibilities. The plastic rollers are available in cream and blue and always come with an FDA certificate. Optionally, the Sliver Removers can also be equipped with stainless steel rollers.

Capacity: Up to 20 tons/hr.