Key Technology VERYX integrated sorting system

Key Technology, a member of the Duravant family of operating companies, has introduced a new concept for sorting green beans prior to snipping.

The Key Technology VERYX integrated sorting system is designed to separate hard-to-snip from easy-to-snip green beans to improve snipping efficiency, which increases case recovery and reduces the cost per case. The solution also removes foreign material (FM) and other plant waste before the snippers, which improves product quality and consistency. All this is done with less equipment than has traditionally been required, which simplifies processes and frees up floor space.

The system combines Key’s Iso-Flo shakers, a Rotary Size Grader (RSG) and a VERYX digital sorter to separate incoming product into four streams. Two streams go to waste and two ‘accept’ streams lead to further processing. One ‘accept’ stream is dedicated to green beans that are difficult to snip, which go to downstream equipment that is optimised to snip this type of product. The other ‘accept’ stream takes field-snipped and easy-to-snip green beans and leads to downstream systems designed specifically to handle these green beans.

Prior to this development, green bean processors have not separated incoming product into streams — instead, everything has been sent in one mass flow to the rotary snippers after upstream pre-cleaning equipment. When hard-to-snip green beans are comingled with easy-to-snip green beans, downstream systems are set to handle the hard-to-snip beans. When easy-to-snip green beans are aggressively snipped, good product is lost. Also, when snippers get FM, it’s cut into smaller pieces, which exacerbates contamination.