Innovation meets Automation: A Smarter Fruit Bin Tipper

A trusted relationship with Reid Fruits, lasting nearly 40 years, has brought about the opportunity to introduce a new product to the GP Graders product range in 2024. We’re grateful to have been able to work with the Reid Fruits team to develop, design and build a new gantry-style bin tipper as a part of the AirJet® cherry grader upgrades that were completed in readiness for the 2024/2025 cherry season in Tasmania.

How it was…

In previous years, cherries going through for grading on this particular machine (there are two) were loaded into the line via a receival tank that was hand-loaded by 5 or 6 operators from the picking lugs that come in from the orchard. The unfavourable outcomes of this method were machine capacity limitation and unnecessary labour cost for a repetitive process.

When your machine is processing between 3 and 4 million cherries every day, it’s not hard to see how every adjustment and tweak can have far-reaching effects. And something needed to be done about this stage of the process.

The Brief

Investing in automation that would reduce a loading team from 6 people to just 1 forklift operator and one co-ordinator became the clear goal.

Secondly, with the AirJet® grader being upgraded from 6 to 10 lanes and extra exits added, the requirement to load more cherries became essential. Hand-loading meant there was a physical limitation to how much fruit could be sent into the grading line.

The desire was to be able to fork in, up to 4, quarter tonnes bins at a time, thereby allowing sufficient time for the loading sequence to run before needing to be reloaded.

These parameters ensure that up 10 tonne of cherries can be loaded every hour. A good match to the grader which has capacity to analyse up to 6 tonne per hour while allowing for future growth.

The Solution

Custom-designed to fit Reid Fruit’s specific environment, GP Graders went to work to design and build this new product from the ground up. Taking all we’ve learned about fruit handling, automation and workflow over the last 60+ years, we set about designing a reliable, robust system that would withstand the pressures of busy harvest seasons for years to come.

A hand-built chassis, the highest quality motors, gearboxes, chains and castors and a proprietary electronics system all comes together to create an innovative and durable solution for loading fruit.

The programming of the tipping process itself has been carefully set to ensure the cherries are handled as carefully as possible and that no fruit is left in the bin. Each bin is submerged into the receival tank water just enough to be efficient but gentle.

Being a completely electric system alleviated any need for hydraulic actuators and associated pumps, making the maintenance minimal and avoiding any excess synthetic fluids in a food production facility.

The current sequence completes the pickup, transfer, tip and return of all 4 bins (1000kgs) in about 5 minutes.

Workflow is increased with smart sensors around the enclosure that allow for the loading of new full bins even before the last empty bin has been put down, with no compromise to the safety of operators. From there, empty bins can be removed, one quick press of the go/load button and the sequence runs again.

The maths adds up.

A lug holds about 10kg of cherries. So 6 people would each have to load about 165 lugs every hour just to keep up. Needless to say, this simply isn’t sustainable. People get tired, people call in sick, people get distracted. Bin tippers, keep on tipping!

We believe in complete packhouse solutions that ensure growers have optimised workflows from the orchard to the packaged produce coolrooms. If there’s a pain point in your production, now’s a good time to get in touch with the GP team to discuss how we can help.