LONDON, ENGLAND — Swiss Bühler Group has launched its latest optical sorter for wheat, rye, oats, grains, coffee and pulses: the SORTEX H SpectraVision. Powered by brand new MerlinAi sorting algorithms, the solution pushes optical sorting to the next level of usability, performance, and product traceability, the company said in a June 17 press release.

Using British and Swiss engineering, the SORTEX H SpectraVision offers three key benefits for customers: unmatched ease of use, high performance, and enhanced connectivity, contributing to increased sustainability. 

Modern processors must tackle an ever-increasing number of defects as a result of climate change and pesticide reduction, and the SORTEX H individual defect removal control enables processors to maintain sort quality with ease.   

The SORTEX H also delivers up to 50% higher reject concentrations. Supplying maximum yields is in line with Bühler’s goal to reduce energy, waste and water by 50% in its customers’ value chains by 2025 and to develop sustainable solutions to feed the world population of 10 billion by 2050.  

Additionally, enhanced connectivity increases value for processors with over 500 data points that can be downloaded every second and sent to Bühler Insights to optimize and track performance. Processors can monitor and control their machine performance from anywhere in the world, in line with Industry 4.0 standards. Real-time tracking of sorting performance and emergency warnings are also possible thanks to the SORTEX Monitoring System. 

The SORTEX H SpectraVision is powered by brand new MerlinAi sorting algorithms. 

“MerlinAi is the new brain of Bühler’s SORTEX optical sorting machines,” said Melvyn Penna, product manager at Bühler. “Its advanced multi-layer sorting algorithms ensure a consistently higher yield for processors, as less good product is lost in the reject stream.”  

Superior defect reduction means accept quality can be met even with input material of a lower quality. 

“These all-new calibration and product tracking algorithms ensure that machine performance remains steady and high, giving processors greater flexibility,” Penna added.

The SORTEX H SpectraVision, which is built and validated at Bühler’s London facility, has been installed at numerous customer sites around the world, including Spain’s first oat mill, Harivenasa. The company specializes in producing and supplying high-quality oats and other cereal-based products. Harivenasa, based in Navarra, had a seven-module SORTEX H SpectraVision machine installed last year in its brand-new oat mill. 

“We’re extremely happy with the SORTEX H because it’s very efficient, boosts our productivity, and we get much better quality now than we previously did in terms of unhusked grains, defects, black spots and so on,” said Alberto Loizate, managing director for Harivenasa-Alea. “Our staff say that it’s much easier to navigate around the software and to maintain the machine. They also tell us that it’s easier to change parameters. In short, the SORTEX H makes their lives a lot easier.”

The SORTEX H SpectraVision is available for purchase globally with up to seven chutes. It was introduced to processors during several recent application- and region-specific webinars. It also was showcased at this year’s ISF World Seed Congress in Barcelona, Spain; the 126th IAOM Conference and Expo in Richmond, Virginia, US; and IPACK-IMA in Milan, Italy.