(patent pending)

  

The capacity utilisation of a presorting line for apples with a wet feed can be improved with the automatic capacity utilisation regulation. Improving the capacity utilisation of the sorting machine allows the capacity of the presorting line to be better used.

The capacity utilisation of the sorting machine largely depends on the water level and the flow in the water canal between the dosing roller and the V-belts. Besides this, the size of the fruit in the batch to be sorted is also important.

  

The dosing roller for the V-belts is divided into sections. The number of sections of the dosing roller depends on the number of tracks of the sorting machine; the dosing roller has one section for two tracks. These sections are driven separately, depending on the amount of fruit on the relevant tracks of the V-belts. The same applies to the speed of the different tracks of the V-belts.

 

Under the dosing roller, there is a rack to prevent fruit from being pressed through the dosing roller. In the water canal between the dosing roller and the V-belts, there are centre tracks to align feeding of the fruit to the sorting machine.

The height difference between the water level in the water canal and the V-belts is kept constant with the aid of sensors above the water canal.

 

Finally, an extra brush has been placed on the V-belts to prevent two pieces of fruit at the same time.

 

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