The evolution of gpVision™

In May 2022, we celebrate the 4 year anniversary of gpVision™, our flagship grading solution for cherries, blueberries, snack tomatoes, grapes and stone fruit. With over 50 sites across the globe now running gpVision™, it’s abundantly evident that the sorting solutions GP Graders are providing are being celebrated by produce packers that demand superior sorting and cost-saving solutions more than ever before.

Originally branded as AirJet® Vision the name was changed to gpVision™ as we expanded the software to different applications outside of our AirJet® range of grading lines including stone fruit and shellfish.

The decision to bring the entire vision grading product development in-house has yielded exceptional results for GP Graders. By allowing us to completely control the outcomes and results from in-feed to exit, we’ve created a truly superior sorting solution. Using the very latest technologies available including cutting edge camera innovations, paired with state-of-the-art components and a team of highly skilled programmers, developers and designers, the gpVision™ system achieves results that lead the industry in accuracy, throughput and reliability.

Blueberries are where it all began 4 years ago when GP Graders installed two large blueberry grading lines featuring gpVision™. Since then we have manufactured countless blueberry lines in Australia, Europe, North and South America with sales expanding each year. The new generation grading of blueberries is category sorting, rather than yes/no single pass machines that attempt to only remove one category of bad fruit. Sophisticated blueberry packers now demand specific sizing, softness and firmness determination, defect removal and the separation of blueberries into multiple categories catering to different markets with different price points. Not only are they packing a cleaner product without the cost of sorting staff but their average market price yield has improved by tailoring to particular markets.

Cherries were next in the development of gpVision™. With over 20 years of cherry grading experience, we are afforded the knowledge to know how these little red gems behave and how to achieve the best grading results. Rotation, defects, stems and colour variation all make for a complicated process of determining what product belongs in what box but with the development of gpVision™, coupled with MultiView™ (our multi-angled camera system), cherry packhouses are experiencing cost savings so prominent, the cost of machinery is paying for itself in only a couple of seasons.

Cherry and grape tomato growers have also had the good fortune of benefiting from the gpVision™ technology. With one producer pumping a staggering 4500kgs an hour over their 4 lane machine every day, it’s safe to say gpVision™ is making a significant difference in their business. Four machines have been manufactured for cherry tomato producers in Australia this year so far with more in the pipeline. With the use of Artificial Intelligence the ability to remove scarred, split, soft and shrivelled fruit well before any degree of manual sorting is applied, equates to instant labour cost saving.

gpVision™ has now been rolled out for Stone Fruit growers. With successful defect grading already working on nectarines, blood plums, peaches and sugar plums, the development of the gpVision™ system has been a relentless pursuit for exemplary results. A central New South Wales producer recently retrofitted the system on their original weight grader to reduce their labour requirements. Physically getting people on to the pack-house floor this year has been difficult, no matter who you speak with so the ability to sort defected fruit out before the manual sorting happened significantly reduces the number of eyes required to ensure only quality product ended up in the box. Our largest stone fruit grader ever was installed this year too. The huge grading line, well over 50m in length, has resulted in a huge reduction of staff cost and overall pack-house operations improvement. GP Graders have numerous orders for stone fruit lines fitted with gpVision™ this year also.

And finally, we’ve developed the gpVision™ system to work with loose or individual grapes. One producer in the US has been using an AirJet® grader to grade and sort seedless grapes for a range of convenient ready-to-eat packs. Running up to 20 hours a day, all year round, this installation was the very first iteration of our sanitary machine design. This revolutionary design ensures pack-house cleanliness is maximised and cleaning time minimised. Originally installed with 6 grading lanes on a 10 lane frame, there are 4 more lanes scheduled for installation the year, increasing production capacity to over 5000kg an hour.

With a long term strategy in place, the benefit of GP Graders machinery in your business makes for a strong business case and ultimately, profit on the bottom line. And the fact that we can provide a complete pack-house solution from fruit bin to box ensures we have the same big picture thinking as you do for your business.

With plans for gpVision™ to work its defect detection magic on a range of other fruits in the pipeline, the future looks extremely promising and exciting.