Unitec Group Technologies at Fruit Attraction 2017

The latest developments from the UNITEC GROUP, the international organisation specialising in designing and producing technologies for the processing, internal and external quality classification, sorting and packing of more than 35 types of fresh fruit and vegetables, will be at the centre of Fruit Attraction, running in Madrid from 18 to 20 October.  Thanks to its tireless drive towards innovation and a team ready to support the client in every single stage of the growth of their industrial project, the Unitec Group has enabled packing houses in many parts of the world to undertake a journey inspired by excellence, where consistent quality of supply is guaranteed over time. Producers and houses have been able to increase their profits, consolidate their reputation as reliable suppliers and gain the possibility of branching out also to much more distant markets that, otherwise, they could never have approached in a coherent fashion. The Group will attend the 2017 edition of Fruit Attraction with its three companies: Unitec, Unisorting and UT Instruments. For the occasion, there will be a focus on solutions for classifying the quality of the fruits most widely grown on Spanish soil but also, and above all, on the innovations that the Group has developed to allow packing houses to expand the horizons of their activity: Unical 8.0 with Apples Sort and Unical 222 Blueberry with Blueberry Vision, technologies dedicated to classifying apples and blueberries respectively. In tribute to the Iberian peninsula’s calling for producing stone fruit, the Unitec Group will present the Peach Vision 2 vision system at Pasarela Innova. This system makes use of state-of-the-art hardware and software technologies, a user-friendly interface and extremely high-resolution cameras to permit the detection of the internal and external defects, hardness, size and colour of the peaches. Completing the offering is the range of portable electronic precision instruments created by UT Instruments for measuring the quality of fruit and vegetable products, from field to point of sale. The logic is that of integrating the various stages of fresh fruit or vegetable processing, from the field where it’s cultivated to the supermarket shelf. Supplying technological innovations to every operator who represents an essential link in the chain means boosting individual performance levels considerably and, above all, creating a network where the common language is consistent quality over time. "Attendance at Fruit Attraction", comments Angelo Benedetti, president of the Unitec Group, "confirms the contemporary quality of this vision and the great attention that we pay to the Spanish market, as demonstrated by the twenty years of activity at the Murcia branch and subsequent openings of two operational bases in Badajoz and Fraga, these too located in highly productive areas of Spain. We actively share the goals of those who want to win out in this sector, of those who want to become more reliable, of those who focus on reducing costs, of those who want to access distant markets. This is one of the reasons we consider opening assistance centres close to our clients essential. A presence in their area is a fitting recognition of the faith that they’ve shown in us, a demonstration that the ongoing collaboration that we talk about isn’t limited to the words we put to paper, but a solid reality, an additional guarantee."Over the years, the Unitec Group’s vision has contributed to the success of many producers, an exemplary demonstration of which is the partnership with Tany Nature. Today, after 15 years of continuous collaboration with the Group, the production area of this reference packing house in Estremadura has seen a great boost, always effected through a logic of integrating existing technologies and increasingly high-performance innovations. From 2003, the technologies dedicated to fruit sorting, first Unical 300 and then Unical 600, were over time joined by vision systems, a choice that improved the quality of the end product and also resulted in considerable cost savings. Atanasio Naranjo Mejia, Operations Manager at Tany Nature, provides the following comment on the fifteen-year association with the Unitec Group: "The greatest advantage of this grand project implemented with the Unitec Group for plums, nectarines, peaches, apricots and flat apples was the implementation of the Ultravision vision technologies: Peach Vision 2 and Plum Vision 2. Due to this, today we’re able to recognise all the defects, external and internal, that large-scale retail asks of us. This way, we’re more efficient and we have a higher quality and more uniform product. Today we achieve a total volume of 55 thousand tonnes of fruit per season, with a development plan for working throughout the year."Unitec Technologies in the Spotlight for Fruit Attraction 2017At Fruit Attraction, the Unitec Group will bring its know-how and the tireless drive towards innovation of a Research & Development department that works daily to increase the performance of fresh fruit and vegetable processing constantly. Specifically, the spotlights will be trained on all the quality selection and classification systems dedicated to processing fruits of particular interest to the Spanish market: >Peach Vision 2 for peaches, nectarines and flat peaches. Unitec is well aware that the best fruit, of exactly the right hardness and sugar content, can satisfy far more profitable markets even a long way from the area of production. Peach Vision 2, in particular, identifies the quality of the fruit, selects it and classifies it, acquiring certainty of the internal and external quality of peaches, nectarines and flat peaches. Designed entirely by the Unitec Group’s R&D department, Peach Vision 2 makes use of state-of-the-art hardware and software technologies and, thanks to extremely high-resolution cameras, permits the detection of internal and external defects and softness as well as size and colour. The Peach Vision 2 vision system processes the fruit non-invasively, is extremely versatile, records the information required for traceability purposes, is flexible and guarantees high levels of processing and productivity. > Unical 8.0 and its innovative Apples Sort vision system. Launched in 2017 and recipient of the Macfrut Innovation Award 2017 gold medal, Unical 8.0 is the technology that’s revolutionising the apple sector. In addition to classifying the internal quality and external characteristics of the fruit, Unical 8.0 can classify apples according to combinations of these parameters to create new product classes. The Apples Sort vision system, which makes use of extremely highresolution cameras, classifies each apple at very high efficiency and precision levels, ensuring unprecedented accuracy in selection. Excluding invasive processes, this technology can examine and establish a relationship between an extraordinarily complex body of parameters, standing out among which are: internal and external defects, condition, degree of ripeness, acidity, degrees Brix, size, colour and shape. Unical 8.0 is also the first machine in the world designed for 100% sanitisation, even with water-based equipment, to eliminate the risk of contaminating fruit. Finally, the running costs are truly minimal, because Unical 8.0 is designed to operate with high processing volumes and guarantee, at the same time, that delicate fruits are not damaged as well as simple maintenance. The Unitec Group is very proud of this Unisorting-branded technology, a strategic innovation that has begun to bring rapid and important enhancements to the apple processing sector, supporting packing houses when, after appreciating the enormous potential linked to the introduction of the new and innovative technologies developed by the Unitec Group’s R&D team, they make the decision to undertake their journey to excellence. > Unical 222 Blueberry and its innovative Blueberry Vision system for blueberries. The excellent performance of the high-output electronic sorter for small fruits is perfectly complemented by the pioneering technology in the field of blueberry selection and classification. The first, one-of-a-kind system that ensures the possibility of inspecting 100% of the blueberry’s surface, without damaging it, considerably enhancing reliability in selecting and classifying the product before it enters the market. > Plum Vision 2 for plums. This vision technology was designed to provide an effective response in plum classification, yellow and red, with full accuracy levels and perfect detection of the rustiness of fruits with red flesh. Plum Vision 2 can guarantee perfect safeguarding of the product’s condition and, at the same time, a dramatic cost reduction in the defect detection stage to eliminate fruits with characteristics unsuited to a given market and/or consumer. > Apricot Vision for apricots. This technology enables excellent sorting and selection of over-ripe apricots through sensors capable of detecting the firmness of the fruits’ flesh, eliminating those not suitable for sale. The advantages it offers are truly considerable, as it allows packing houses to guarantee their clients a level of quality that was previously unthinkable, and to export their products to any market, no matter how distant, as well as eliminate fruit deemed defective in terms of surface. > UT Instruments, a company created by merging Unitec and TR Turoni, operating in the fruit and vegetable quality control sector for more than 30 years, will exhibit its electronic precision instruments to measure the quality of fruit and vegetable products. Portable, smart, quick and safe, with Bluetooth technology and dedicated software, UT Instruments products complete the offering of the Unitec Group perfectly. These electronic instruments allow the measurement of fruit quality parameters: small/large, storable/not storable, sour/sweet, soft/hard, ripe/unripe, to enable the entire supply chain to satisfy the specific demands of the consumer. The Unitec Group will attend: FRUIT ATTRACTION Madrid, 18–20 October UNITEC Hall 9 Stand 9D13 UNISORTING Hall 9 Stand 9B13