Tree fruit grower-packer-shipper, Stemilt Growers has opened a new cherry packing line at the company’s Euclid Street facility in Wenatchee, Washington, US.
The Euclid cherry line features new technology for electronically sizing and sorting cherries. Two, ten-lane electronic sizers with defect sorters from GP Graders will size cherries and automatically sort each piece of fruit.
Stemilt president West Mathison said the company has been tracking the technology for over five years and it is finally ready to be implemented on a commercial level.
"We believe that the technology on this line will help us improve returns to the land through better sizing and sorting of cherries, while simultaneously reducing sorting costs," Mathison said.
Housed in a 24,000ft2 building, the line creates better sizing separations for cherries and will mechanically sort cherries for colors, firmness and defects.
The Euclid line will enable the company to pack a box of cherries and delivers on accurate sizing and. The company can now pack cherries according to set parameters, such as firmness or removal of certain defects.
Stemilt will use the new line to pack dark-sweet cherries for both domestic as well as for export.
Two Sorma machines, besides the GP Graders equipment, offer flexibility in packing cherries in various pack types such as clamshells, bags and bulk.
Eliminator sizer Herbie cleans up small-sized cherries and sends them to designated sorting tables for manual sorting and later on to packing.
Stemilt claims that the line, which increases its cherry packing capacity, is made up of GP Graders equipment, with a dump tank and elevator provided by Van Doren Sales, and conveyors by RH Brown and Van Doren Sales.
