Key Technology, a member of the Duravant family of operating companies, introduces Veryx digital sorters for gummy candies. Designed specifically to detect and remove foreign material (FM) and gummies with bits of remaining starch, as well as color and shape defects, Veryx enables gummy candy manufacturers to improve product quality and protect their brand while virtually eliminating false rejects to maximize profitability.

“Veryx’s unique sensor configuration not only allows for the most thorough all-sided surface inspection, but also offers patented Pixel Fusion for advanced detection,” said Karel Van Velthoven, advanced inspection systems product marketing manager at Key. “Our gummy candy customers with installed Veryx systems are experiencing a sort accuracy that was unseen until now.”

Veryx sorts oil-coated, sugar-coated, yogurt-coated, and vitamin-enhanced gummy candies. It detects color, size, shape, and structural properties to find gummies with bits of remaining starch, even when inspecting milky-white, yogurt-coated candies that are the same color as starch and have a similar texture. It detects all types of FM, including plastic and wood, to give candy manufacturers using plastic or wood trays in their candy-making process assurance that fragments of a broken tray don’t get packaged with product. The sorter also detects color defects such as mixed-color gummies and shape defects such as clumps, conjoined gummies, malformed gummies, mold spills, and more.

Key optimizes Veryx with the ideal cameras, laser sensors, algorithms, and ejection system for gummy candies. Additionally, an application-specific line layout with an optional defect resort system blends Key’s expertise in digital sorting and mechanical product handling, further contributing to new standards of performance for gummy candy sorting. This integrated solution combines a chute-fed Veryx sorter with specialized Iso-Flo and Impulse vibratory shakers to achieve superior FM/defect removal rates with virtually no false rejects.

Equipped with front- and rear-mounted cameras, laser scanners and multi-sensor Pixel Fusion detection modules, Veryx views all sides of the product with no blind spots to find and remove more FM and defects. The next-generation four-channel cameras and high-resolution laser sensors offer twice the resolution of previous sensor technology to see smaller FM and defects, including gummies with bits of remaining starch as small as one square millimeter. Pixel Fusion technology combines pixel-level input from multiple cameras and laser sensors to produce higher contrasts, enabling Veryx to find and remove the most difficult-to-detect FM and defects.

Object-based sorting facilitates advanced shape sorting algorithms and intelligent ejection on Veryx. While most gummy candy manufacturers will program their sorter to remove shape defects such as clumps and conjoined gummies, other minor misshaped gummies might delight young consumers and may be programmed as acceptable on the sorter. Intelligent ejection improves the accuracy of all FM/defect removal and reduces false rejects. Rather than firing an ejector at the defect itself, Veryx performs contour-based and/or centroid-based calculations to target ejectors at the object’s center of mass to ensure FM/defect removal while maximizing yield.

Product changeovers are fast and easy. With double-sided Pixel Fusion, the detection system is so advanced, every type of gummy candy can be accurately sorted using the same background, so hardware changes are eliminated. Recipe-based sorting takes away the hassle of configuring the sorter for each new type of candy. Changing over to a new gummy shape or color takes only a couple of taps on the touchscreen to load the dedicated recipe. This recipe-driven operation simplifies use and ensures repeatable results, so product quality is guaranteed, regardless of personnel changes and across multiple lines and locations.

Veryx can also leverage Key’s powerful Information Analytics software, which allows users to analyze and share big data across their enterprise via an OPCUA-compliant infrastructure at the same time they sort. Data about the sort process and about every object flowing through the sorter, whether the data is used to make sort decisions or not, is available to reveal patterns, trends and associations. This data can help a processor optimize processes upstream and downstream of the sorter to achieve the next level in operational efficiency.

Veryx is available in multiple sizes to satisfy a range of capacity requirements, with the highest volume system sorting up to five metric tons of gummy candies per hour.

Key Technology, Walla Walla, WA 509-529-2161 www.key.net

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