Two northern California cherry packers are using new grading and sorting technology for the 2014 cherry season. Both held open houses in April to show off the new equipment to growers and industry members.

Rivermaid Trading Company in Lodi installed a GP Graders Air Jet Defect Grader on a 40-lane cherry line, the largest ever installed by GP Graders, a company from Australia.

The Air Jet grader uses optical technology and Ellips software to grade and size cherries for defects, softness, size, and color. The line includes a twin feed submersible dumper, new style cluster cutters, hydro-cooling shower conveyors, a 40-lane defect grader, and 36 exits. Rivermaid plans to process 26 tons per hour with the new line, according to a news release.

O-G Packing unveiled its new 72-lane optical cherry sorting system in April, claimed to be the largest cherry sorting system in the United States, according to a news release. Unitec’s Cherry_Vision optical sorting technology, which allows nondestructive detection of internal and external quality, was first installed at O-G Packing last year and covered 40 lanes. The packing house added sorting capacity to 32 lanes this year. Unitec S.p.A. is from Italy.

To learn more, visit http://eng.unitec-group.com and www.gpgraders.com. Tours of the GP Graders machine at Rivermaid are available by contacting Taylor Thompson at taylor@gpgraders.com.