Bühler’s flexibility and customer care helped a Turkish fruit and vegetable processor meet its sorting requirements.
Martas Marmara Agricultural Food, a Bursa-based company, initially ordered two SORTEX K optical sorters, but following a last-minute review, decided that a more compact sorter was required. Martas Marmara changed one of the two SORTEX K orders to a smaller sorter to help the company meet its processing requirements.
Martas Marmara processes a wide range of frozen fruit and vegetable products from its farmland in the Yenisehir and Mustafakemalpasa areas of North West Turkey. Martas’ production sites in Bursa and Kemalpasa have a combined processing capacity of 40,000 tons of fruit and vegetables across a range of products, including green beans, peppers, okra and strawberries.
“We selected Bühler’s SORTEX technology, as it offered the best level of product recovery and safest and most secure removal of foreign material with PROfile (shape recognition) technology to remove stalks, pods and stems the same color as the product,” says Ulfuk Acar, director at Martas. “However, we felt that the SORTEX E1D sorter would be more appropriate to suit our immediate needs than the second SORTEX K2A machine we had originally ordered.”
Bühler’s flexibility meant that this was not a problem, and despite the original machine being ready for shipment, a new machine was built, installed and commissioned in record time. By working with the local Turkish agent Atomika Machinery, Bühler ensured the process ran smoothly and Martas Marmara received the best machine for its needs.
“We appreciated having local Turkish-speaking support from Bühler’s agent, and were pleased that Bühler pulled out all the stops to supply the SORTEX E1D instead,” Acar says. “It is rare that suppliers are able to display this degree of flexibility.”
SORTEX K
The SORTEX K range was developed by Bühler with customers’ needs in mind. It combines double-sided viewing with high-definition cameras and SORTEX-enhanced InGaAs cameras to ensure efficient removal of foreign material and extraneous vegetable matter. The SORTEX K range overcame the weakness of previous generations of traditional sorters to satisfactorily remove wood, plastic and cardboard, which are a major cause of customer complaints.
SORTEX E
The SORTEX E range was designed to bring the benefits of large sorters like the SORTEX K to processors with restricted space whilst still delivering high-quality inspection for discolored or mis-shaped product, subtle blemishes, foreign material and extraneous vegetable matter. Like all SORTEX machines, the SORTEX E1D combines bichromatic cameras, InGaAs technology, PROfile shape technology and fast, precise ejectors to ensure accurate elimination of contaminants.
For more information, contact David Adams, business development manager for Buhler Sortex Ltd., at +44 20 7055 7783 or david.adams@buhlergroup.com.
