Nicholas TROUNCE Product Manager Bühler AG

"While optical sorters were used mainly for sorting seed, rice, pulses, fruits and vegetables in the past, Bühler now offers a new generation of machines for the optical sorting of grains with the SORTEX A series. This also increases food safety in grain milling".

Increased requirements in food safety have made optical sorters key machines in cleaning raw food materials in recent years. The optical sorters from Bühler SORTEX hold a top position when it comes to sorting quality and results. They have been providing 99.9% certainty in the optimal sorting of food and non-food applications for decades.

The different machines in the SORTEX build series have been mainly used for sorting seed, rice, pulses, fruits and vegetables in the past. But now, the milling industry has followed the trend and is using optical sorters as well.

Bühler has responded to these changing market demands by steadily expanding its range of optical sorters for grain applications. Its SORTEX A series allows Bühler to offer a top-of-the-line sorter for comprehensive grain applications.

EXTENDED APPLICATION The new sorter from Bühler is specifically designed for sorting grain and is suitable for sorting soft wheat, durum, maize, rye, oats, barley, millet/sorghum and buckwheat and even recently, also soy beans, sunflower and gold millet. This means that Bühler covers almost the entire range of applications in grain processing with its SORTEX A sorter. The state-of-the-art technology with new, sophisticated detection and lighting systems provides the best possible grain sorting solution for all applications.

FOOD SAFETY Diseased or contaminated grains impact food safety and the quality of the end product. Bühler’s optical sorters remove any grains which show signs of fungal infections (e.g. Fusarium) and lead to a significant reduction in mold toxins (mycotoxins) such as DON or vomitoxin. Furthermore, they remove discolored, damaged or insect infested grains as well as foreign material, foreign seeds and other types of grain from the product with a high degree of reliability. They thus also contribute to an excellent appearance of the finished products.

The high-precision rejection system minimizes the separation of good grain, which means that a secondary sorting is superfluous in the majority of applications.

CUSTOMIZED The SORTEX product range for use in grain sorting is modularly structured. Configuration is done individually and depends on the type of grain to be sorted, the process requirements and the desired performance. The various versions differ by the number of chutes (1 to 5), the camera equipment and the detection software as well as the rejection system. Of course, multiple applications are possible with each version.

The SORTEX A has a sorting performance of up to eight tons of wheat per chute and hour. All versions have LED lighting, state-of-the-art InGaAs technology, integrated feed control and CE and ATEX certification in common.

The total package for the SORTEX sorting line also includes the inlet hoppers and the surge bins, which guarantee optimal integration into the entire sorting process.

SORTEX PROSORTX Since January 2016, all SORTEX A machines are now delivered with the new operating software SORTEX ProSortX. This patented software has a new user interface that is simple and intuitive to use and has more configurable options than ever before. Thanks to the latest generation of processors and the innovative fingertip control TM touchscreen technology, the SORTEX sorting system is even easier to use.

Bühler also offers a retrofit package including software and a new display screen that can be used to retrofit all SORTEX A sorters.