Advanced optical sorting options are now available on new models of Tong Engineering’s fieldloader machine, the FieldLoad PRO, a Sept. 26 news release said.
The FieldLoad PRO allows growers to effectively clean and load crop in-field and on-farm. It now offers fully integrated camera sorting facilities, further reducing labour requirements when processing crop straight from the field, the release said.
“Our flagship mobile grader, the Caretaker, has long been available with integrated optical sorting as a replacement of traditional manual inspection, with proven success and continued demand. However, with an increasing number of growers choosing the configuration of the FieldLoad PRO,” Charlie Rich, sales director at Tong Engineering, said in the release.
The release noted the FieldLoad PRO is suitable for use on a wide range of root crops including potatoes, carrots, onions. It features a high capacity reception hopper feeding a choice of crop cleaning units including Tong’s EasyClean separator available with Auto-Touch HMI controls, as well as the company’s high-speed PU coil cleaning system and star cleaning units. The release also said it’s custom-built to suit grower’s exact specifications and has a four-man standard inspection area with the new optical sorting option offered as an alternative to the standard inspection module.
“We have been working closely alongside optical sorting specialist Tomra for many years and our recent Optical Sorting Live event has provided a real insight into what can be achieved when integrating optical,” Rich said. “The results have been very impressive both in terms of the amount of labour that can be saved at this stage of the post-harvest handling process, as well as the potential reduction in storage costs as only good crop is being stored.”
Once crop is cleaned, Tong’s folding cart elevator cradles crop deep into bulker trailers, store or box filling equipment, the release said. A super-silent onboard generator provides power efficiency for in-field operation, which can be bypassed for mains power when operating on-farm.
The FieldLoad PRO machine was initially launched in 2018.
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