The SORTEX H SpectraVision is the latest optical sorter from the Swiss Bühler Group for coffee, wheat, rye and other seeds and grains. The system, which is powered by brand-new MerlinAi sorting algorithms, takes optical sorting to the next level in terms of usability, performance, and product traceability.
A result of Buhler’s 75 years of experience in optical sorting, the SORTEX H SpectraVision offers three key benefits for customers: high performance, enhanced connectivity, and a user-oriented operational system, contributing to increased sustainability.
SORTEX H SpectraVision, side view
Monitoring Both Productivity and Defects
In today’s market, due to climate change and pesticide reduction, processors are expected to deal with numerous defects. The SORTEX H, with its individual defect removal control, enables processors to maintain sort quality with ease. This allows for acceptable quality output to be met even with lower quality input material.
Bühler’s optical sorters in general can remove a range of defects in coffee, such as discoloured, immature and insect-damaged beans, as well as various foreign materials. They can also work in different coffee applications including arabica, robusta, and roasted beans. However, SORTEX H SpectraVision has a broader range of features and more sustainable objectives.
The SORTEX H provides maximum yields while also delivering up to 50% higher reject concentrations, which aligns with Bühler’s goal of reducing energy, waste, and water in customers’ value chains by 50% by 2025, as well as finding sustainable solutions to feed the world’s growing population of 10 billion by 2050.
Furthermore, thanks to the SORTEX Monitoring System (SMS), real-time tracking of sorting performance and emergency alerts are possible. SMS delivers actionable insights to boost productivity, yield and efficiency while providing an overview of the processor’s Bühler SORTEX machine’s main performance parameters. Dashboards are designed for various user demands, enabling the processors to make decisions from any location.
SORTEX Monitoring System, Dashboard
Central Platform
Another benefit of the machine is its enhanced connectivity through the platform Bühler Insights. Over 500 data points can be downloaded and sent to the platform to help optimise and track performance. Processors are then able to monitor and control their machines remotely from anywhere in the world, in line with Industry 4.0 standards – a combination of cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things, and the Internet of Systems.
“These all-new calibration and product tracking algorithms ensure that machine performance remains steady and high, giving processors greater flexibility.”
Melvyn Penna, Product Manager, Bühler
SORTEX Monitoring System, Dashboard
Customer Feedback
Harivenasa, Spain’s first oat mill, had a seven-module SORTEX H SpectraVision installed last year. The company’s managing director, Alberto Loizate, commented on how the quality of the oats has improved and the low rejects of the product, in terms of unhusked grains, defects, black spots, and others. The convenience is also worthy of note in that the staff found the interface user-friendly and the machine easy to operate.
The SORTEX H SpectraVision is powered by brand new MerlinAi sorting algorithms. “MerlinAi is the new brain of Bühler’s SORTEX optical sorting machines,” said Penna.“Its advanced multi-layer sorting algorithms ensure a consistently higher yield for processors, as a less good product is lost in the reject stream.” The machine can also be modified to include up to seven chutes.
Developed and tested at Bühler’s London facility, The SORTEX H SpectraVision is now sold globally and deployed at a number of customer locations. Over the past few months, it was presented to processors through a number of seminars with a focus on different applications and areas. Additionally, it was presented at the ISF World Seed Congress in Barcelona, the IAOM in North America, and the IPACK-IMA in Milan, where it received a great deal of favorable response. The machine can be assessed live at any of Bühler’s test centers worldwide or via video stream.
Switzerland-based Bühler Holding AG is a multinational plant equipment manufacturer founded in 1860. The organisation holds high market positions worldwide in the fields of technology and processes for transforming grain into flour and animal feeds, producing pasta and chocolate, and manufacturing die-cast components.
