Hamilton, New Zealand – BBC Technologies, part of TOMRA Food and global leader in turnkey solutions for sorting, packing and optimizing small fruit, extends its industry-defining CURO filling system range with the new CURO-2 compact system for fruits under 40 mm diameter, primarily focusing on the blueberry, cherry and snacking tomato markets. Developed under market demand, it enables customers to pack small volumes of different grades of fruit simultaneously to supply the produce divided in multiple tiers for supermarkets, or supplement existing capacity.
The CURO-2 takes flexibility to a new level by providing a solution for packing small volumes of different grades of fruit simultaneously – useful for premium products – or complementing bigger CURO-platforms to supplement capacity if required. It has the exceptional versatility of the bigger CURO-16 and the same efficiency in switching between different sized packing options such as clamshells, punnets and boxes. It also shares the benefits of excellent accuracy, gentle handling, and simple and intuitive user interface of the larger system.
“We developed CURO-2 because we wanted to increase further the flexibility and granularity of the CURO platform,” explains Geoff Furniss, BBC Technologies CEO.
“We are seeing a significant shift in the market, with our customers being increasingly required to divide their fruit into multiple tiers and needing to pack different grades of product simultaneously. The CURO-2 provides the solution for packing our customers’ niche products once they have been graded, as well as providing them with additional capacity when needed. At BBC Technologies we have a track record for working closely with our customers and continually evolving and adapting our offering to suit their individual needs, and this is exactly what happened with this new product.”
CURO-2 delivers premium flexibility in South Africa
The CURO-2 system was developed to meet the requirements of customers such as South Africa based Blue Mountain Berries. The company farms 143 hectares of blueberries, which it distributes through global group BerryWorld to markets across the world including Europe, South East Asia and Russia. Two years ago, it also started a frozen berry line, which it markets to South African retailers for the time being. As a loyal BBC Technologies customer since 2012, Blue Mountain Berries recently upgraded the automatization of its packing plant with the addition of a full turnkey KATO 260 precision grading line and a CURO-2 filling system.
Chrisleo Botha, Managing Director at Blue Mountain Berries explains the setup: “We worked out a KATO 260 configuration with 7 exits: one with a CURO-12, which processes the majority of our product; one with the CURO-2, which we use to pack a grade that is about 20% of our product; two exits with hand fillers for our smaller fruit and local product; on two exits we split our frozen fruit into two categories, small and large; and finally we have one waste exit. The whole configuration fits our business well and we can do everything we want to do on one run. The CURO-2 allowed us to utilize Fill-by-Weight functionality on smaller niche volumes of fruit that we were previously having to pack by hand.”
After 2 months of operation, Chrisleo has found that the upgrade with the addition of the KATO 260 precision grading line and the CURO-2 filling system has raised the company’s productivity, improved quality by reducing human handling and errors, and increased accuracy by reducing the fruit give-away.
The CURO-2’s versatility is a key benefit: “Sizing is increasingly a selling tool, and with the KATO 260 we are able to offer premium lines of fruit in a definite size or quality band. We can sort narrower size bands, for example diameters less than 14mm, 14 to 16mm, and 16mm plus, which give a much better appearance for some of our clients. The CURO-2 has increased our capacity to do a final pack in different sizes and it’s been working very well for us. Also, the premium lines attract better payment, which benefits our profitability.”
Chrisleo is also impressed with the CURO-2’s gentle handling of the berries: “Part of our Quality Control process is to measure firmness, and I’d like to say we’ve got really consistent firmness. We don’t lose product integrity. In terms of quality and how we are perceived in the market, the machine has already paid a lot towards its purchase price in just half a season.”
The relationship with BBC Technologies is very important to Chrisleo – not only for the after-sales support, but also in terms of product development, for the company’s ability to anticipate customer needs and work with them to develop solutions: “BBC Technologies is reliable, because even if we struggle with a problem I know we will get an answer. And that’s not applicable only to after-sales, but also to the product itself. New product developments address the issues that we perceive during the seasons, as new problems arise and as new requirements are put there by the markets. For me that’s very positive.”
The CURO-2 – maximum flexibility, gentle handling and extreme accuracy
The CURO-2, which features two filling stations, is designed for packing small fruits with diameter under 40 mm, such as blueberries, cherries and snacking tomatoes. The fruit is fed into the CURO-2, where a shaker table gently moves it side to side, distributing it evenly onto the two stations of the machine. Each station features two belts: the bulk feed belt conveys the majority of the product into the weighing station, while the trickle feed belt adds one additional piece of fruit at a time to achieve the exact weight required. The fruit is deposited into the box, punnet or clamshell, and moved to the next stage of the packing process.
The CURO-2 packs up to 700 kg/h and is extremely gentle on the produce throughout the process, ensuring consistently high quality of the packed fruit. Minimal transitions between hopper and conveyor, together with the anti-bruise surfaces, ensure the product surface is kept intact during sorting and packing. Precision controls across filling, denesting and clamshell delivery result in extremely accurate weighing.
The CURO range – Industry-defining filling systems
The CURO-2 is the latest introduction in the CURO range, which includes the CURO-12 and CURO-16 systems featuring 12 and 16 filling stations respectively. The range stands out for its flexibility and capability to switch easily between a wide range of packing options, in addition to its accuracy, gentle handling of the fruit, intuitive controls and simplified operation. The CURO range is designed and manufactured at BBC Technologies’ manufacturing plant in New Zealand.
About BBC Technologies & TOMRA
BBC Technologies is the global leader in complete turnkey solutions for grading, optimizing, and packing small fruit. Founded by growers, they specialize in soft, delicate varieties in which their industry-leading technology preserves the natural characteristics of each piece of fruit. BBC Technologies designs, develops, manufactures and installs all of their own end-to-end turnkey lines, which include traceability and analytics software.
BBC Technologies is a member of the TOMRA Group that was founded on innovation in 1972 that began with design, manufacturing and sale of reverse vending machines (RVMs) for automated collection of used beverage containers. Today, TOMRA has ~90,000 installations in over 80 markets worldwide and had total revenues of ~7.4 billion NOK in 2016. The Group employs ~3,550 globally and is publicly listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. (OSE: TOM). The TOMRA Group continues to innovate and provide cutting-edge solutions for optimal resource productivity within two main business areas: Collection Solutions (reverse vending and material recovery) and Sorting Solutions (recycling, mining and food sorting).
For further information about TOMRA, please see www.tomra.com/food.
