Key Technology onCore lettuce core removal system

Key Technology’s onCore is an integrated system for processing iceberg and romaine lettuces in bagged salads. The system, which combines a vibratory density separation shaker with a camera/laser sorter, eliminates manual coring to increase yields and improve product quality while reducing labour costs.

In addition to eliminating manual coring, the system simultaneously removes foreign material and product defects from the production line, further improving product quality and food safety.

With onCore, the whole, uncored heads of lettuce are brought into the plant and cut using the same automated cutting technology that is traditionally used to cut cored heads of lettuce. After cutting, a two-step process removes the pieces of core as well as foreign material and defects from the product stream.

First, the three-deck Iso-Flo density separation shaker uses gravity and directional airflow to remove 85 to 90% of the core and spread product to present it to the downstream sorter. The effectiveness of this process reduces the volume of core being fed to the sorter, which helps the sorter focus on removing the smallest pieces of core along with foreign material and leaf defects.

The second part of the process is the sorter. The sorter is equipped with a combination of the company’s Raptor laser technology and tri-chromatic colour cameras. The laser detects differences in the structural properties of objects to remove pieces of core and foreign material. The cameras determine each object’s size, shape and colour to identify and remove defects.