Key Technology’s new VERYX™ digital sorting platform features belt-fed and chute-fed configurations that are ideal for wet and frozen potato strips as well as other processed potato specialty products.

Introducing sustainable all-sided surface inspection, multi-sensor data fusion and the highest resolution cameras and laser sensors available on a sorter, VERYX achieves new levels of foreign material (FM) and product defect removal. Advanced auto-learn, self-adjusting capabilities and recipe-driven operation offer extreme ease-of-use. As the world’s most intelligent sorting platform, VERYX creates new standards of performance to improve product quality and maximize yields while minimizing operator interaction.

“With VERYX, we’re able to achieve the sustained all-sided product viewing that potato strip processors have always wanted. All-sided inspection has been done before, but now the new innovative mechanical sorter architecture, coupled with our self-adjusting capabilities, sustains that view and, most importantly, the sort performance,” Steve Pellegrino, Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Key Technology, told Potato Processing International magazine.

On belt-fed systems, the bottom cameras are positioned away from product splatter to ensure the lower sensor windows are not obstructed with build-up over time. Eliminating this performance degradation keeps bottom cameras operating at peak performance and makes VERYX the first sorter to offer sustained 100 percent surface inspection throughout the production cycle.

VERYX features Key’s suite of French fry analytics, which includes Sort-to-Grade™ and Simplified-Length-Control™ to grade defects and length by count, accepting or rejecting each strip to control the quality of output to a defined grade, as defined by the processor. Other smart features such as auto-learning, self-adjustment algorithms, predictive system diagnostics, smart alarms and FMAlert™ enable VERYX to operate virtually unattended during normal production.

Available in a range of inspection widths from 700mm to 2100mm for belt-fed and 700mm to 1400mm for chute-fed configurations, VERYX will satisfy small to very large production capacity requirements. “We’re excited about all the options that we’re developing for potato processors. We have several beta machines placed in plants for ongoing testing, which will help us deliver the most successful solutions tailored specifically for this very important industry,” noted Pellegrino. “We’ve designed VERYX for the global market. Small regional processors and large multinationals will all appreciate how it runs with minimal operator intervention and how easy it is to learn to use compared to other sorters.”

VERYX introduces an intuitive new user interface (UI) that can provide different views to users of various levels. Recipe-driven operation ensures customers can count on consistent performance from their VERYX sorter day in day out, including running the same product across multiple sorters in different lines or locations.

Next-generation cameras and laser sensors offer twice the resolution capability of previous generation sorters to detect and remove the smallest defects and FM. The new ejection system is tailored to each product application, with the distance between nozzles and the power of the valves varying for optimal management of the sort streams. Industry-first multi-sensor fusion at the pixel level integrates the input from multiple cameras and lasers to enhance the differentiation between good and bad objects to more accurately identify and remove subtle product defects and challenging FM types.