Continous innovation for packing houses: UNI Robotic, the robotic division of UNITEC, is born

UNITEC GROUP returns to Macfrut exhibition, scheduled to take place in Rimini from 7 to 9 September 2021, bringing with it all the technological excellence that has characterized it for over 95 years to guarantee new effective solutions to the demands of the Packing Houses across the world. The Rimini event will be the opportunity to meet at the fair the protagonists of the fruit and vegetable world and to present the technological innovations on which UNITEC has worked in recent years to help Packing Houses from all over the world to successfully achieve their business goals. First and foremost, UNI Robotic, UNITEC new division specialized in intelligent robotic solutions, conceived with the aim to provide a new high performing technological response to the demands of Packing Houses, particularly in terms of cutting labor costs in the sorting process thanks to the use of anthropomorphic and non-anthropomorphic robots. On one hand, these are able to guarantee a strong increase in efficiency and, on the other, a significant improvement in the efficacy and precision of fruit sorting processes. But UNITEC innovation doesn’t stop here. Every year UNITEC satisfies the fruit and vegetable world with innovative solutions for all fresh fruit and vegetables processing stages, from emptying to packing, including also the sorting of packages and automatic palletization, ranging from an accurate and precise selection of the external and internal quality and of all the organoleptic characteristics related to the same. Each individual fruit is guaranteed these controls thanks to dedicated transport systems and specific highly precise vision systems developed internally by the Research and Development Team. In UNITEC we continue to innovate non-stop, in every direction, yet with a particular focus on the selection of internal quality with the UNIQ range technologies dedicated to every type of fruit (UNIQ Kiwi, for the selection of the internal quality of green and yellow kiwi; UNIQ Plum, dedicated to the selection of the internal quality of all the many varieties of plums, whether yellow or red flesh; UNIQ Apples, dedicated to apples, UNIQ Peach dedicated to peaches and nectarines; UNIQ Cherry, dedicated to cherries; UNIQ Melon dedicated to Melon and so on). There are many new systems presented by UNITEC and Unisorting at MACFRUT 2021 with particular focus on the automation and robotics field for reducing processing costs. UNI INTELLIGENT PACK: the intelligent robotic technology that places apples inside the trays so that all the stems are oriented in the same direction. Furthermore, this technology, combined with the Apples Sort 3 vision system used for the selection of the external quality of apples, through a color detection system allows to combine the orientation of the stems with the most colored parts of the fruit; this ensures that the apples are displayed in the package in the most esthetically pleasing and attractive manner for consumers. UNI INTELLIGENT WEIGHT SOLUTION: the robotic technology that intelligently adjusts the filling of Kiwi crates according to the set weight. As a matter of fact, thanks to this system, in the event where the weight of the crate does not conform to the required set weight, the robot intervenes by picking or adding fruits to reach the desired crate weight without ever over-packing the crates which generates a loss in earning of the Packing Houses. UNI INTELLIGENT PUNNET PACK: the innovative technological system that picks two punnets at a time, placing them inside the crate until it is full. This system makes it possible to completely eliminate manual packing, boosting efficiency whilst generating a marked decrease in labor costs. UNIQ KIWI: the innovative UNITEC technology for the selection of the internal quality of kiwi fruits, both green and yellow flesh fruit. It is a system developed to detect every characteristic of the fruit flesh and every organoleptic secret. UNIQ Kiwi selects the internal quality of the kiwi in a non-invasive manner, preserving all the valuable characteristics of each individual fruit. Equipped with exceptionally high resolution sensors, UNIQ Kiwi is able to detect the parameters characterizing internal quality such as Brix Degree, the Dry Matter and the flesh color, with unprecedented levels of reliability and accuracy. PEARS SORT 3: the Unisorting sorting system, a brand of the UNITEC Group, which has completely revolutionized the selection of pear quality. It is the only system in the world which is able to view the pear in its entirety, at 360 degrees, without the pear being stressed by the rotation of the individual fruits. This is an exceptional plus given the delicacy of a fruit whose particular shape makes it more difficult to handle. “Our UNITEC Team aims to help Packing Houses across the world to constantly improve their sorting processes and consequently their businesses, by placing our experience and our innovations at their service every single day – states Angelo Benedetti, President of UNITEC. Thanks to its exceptional specialization in intelligent robotic solutions, we believe that UNI Robotic can be an effective solution to the difficulties encountered by our sector at the moment, which are finding skilled labor and cutting processing costs. UNITEC – concludes Benedetti – through constant innovation and a high-degree of specialization, wants to continue to work alongside our Customers in order to always guarantee them new Results, today as in the future.” About UNITECUNITEC is an international group, with 13 operational branches across the world, specialized in designing and manufacturing innovative technologies, 100% developed and produced inside the Company, dedicated to processing, sorting, packing and selecting the quality of fresh fruits and vegetables. For over 95 years, UNITEC has been committed to improving the quality of fruit and vegetable processing in over 65 countries in which it operates. UNITEC technologies are highly specialized and dedicated to sorting and selecting internal and external quality of different varieties of fruits such as apples, pears, cherries, apricots, blueberries, plums, peaches, nectarines, melons, tomatoes, etc. In total there are more than 35 types of fruits for which UNITEC has designed and built dedicated technologies, giving a real and strong contribution to the development of the business of these products. Pictures1. UNIQ Kiwi2. Pears Sort 33. UNI INTELLIGENT PACK4. UNI INTELLIGENT WEIGHT SOLUTION