Conveyors support walnut sorting line

摘要

Last year, Poindexter Nut Company, one of the five largest walnut processors in the world, turned to Key Technology for a new sorting line to remove shells and foreign material (FM) while separating good, clean walnut halves and pieces from clean but off-colour product. In addition to three digital sorters, the new line features several of Key's conveyors. At the infeed to the Optyx sorter, an Iso-Flo vibratory conveyor spreads the product into a monolayer, singulating and stabilising it for presentation to the sorter's vision system at a consistent speed and without clumps. After sorting, another Iso-Flo gently conveys good, clean walnut halves and pieces to collection bins. A third Iso-Flo, which features a divided conveyor bed, takes both reject streams from the three-way Optyx sorter to two nearby bins. The Poindexter plant also includes an Iso-Flo and an Impulse shaker to convey the reject streams from two Cayman BioPrint sorters.