From picking to deep processing, continuous development of apple related machinery and equipment

- May 07, 2018-

Independent research and development of picking equipment to adapt to China's apple picking environment

 

High labor costs and extremely low picking efficiency have become pain points for the development of the apple industry. How to solve the apple picking problem? Yantai engineers developed a self-propelled orchard picker to try to resolve this pain point. The semi-automatic apple picking equipment still requires manual labor in picking, but the equipment is equipped with pedals. Farmers do not need to erect or carry ladders when picking. The four corners of the equipment are equipped with conveyor belts. The staff picks apples into the conveyor belt after picking. Equipment can be packed and transported by the equipment itself. The equipment can also adjust the speed of the car and the speed according to the spacing of the fruit trees to meet the needs of the terrain such as hills and hills. With the use of this equipment, workers are freed from the labor hours of moving boxes and ladders, and the production efficiency can be increased by six to eight times.

 

Of course, with the development of the smart manufacturing industry, we are more and more looking forward to the future of China's apple picking equipment with the "awareness" to identify mature apples, can achieve self-picking as some picking robots abroad, and further improve production efficiency.

 



    Introducing refined sorting equipment to make apple fresher

 

More than 80% of apples in China are used for fresh food, so the development of apple primary processing equipment is also extremely important. Sorting equipment can make fresh apples better quality, is an extremely important device in apple processing. However, China's apple sorting equipment mostly stays on sorting based on size and weight, and the sorting precision is limited. Therefore, China has chosen to introduce foreign sorting equipment.

 

Yunnan Zhaotong has introduced Apple’s automatic sorting line from New Zealand. The sorting line covers a number of functions such as cleaning, sorting, and packaging required in primary processing. As for sorting, fine sorting of apples is achieved through multi-level sorting systems such as weighing, epidermis sorting, taste sweetness, and internal quality sorting. Yanan introduced a dual-channel photoelectric automatic fruit selection line from France. The sorting equipment, through special light irradiation, can sort and classify apples according to their color, size, sugar content, and enthalpy, and can identify “mould heart "apple.

 

Apple's deep processing equipment was given priority to develop a hundred kinds of deep processing products

 

Although only about 15% of apples in China are used for deep processing, China has attached great importance to deep processing varieties of apples. At present, it has successively developed more than one hundred kinds of apple deep processing products, including fruit juice, fruit wine, pectin, essence, enzymes and other products.

 

Take concentrated apple juice as an example. According to statistics, concentrated apple juice currently belongs to a sub-industry with the largest scale and highest maturity in juice processing. With the improvement of people’s health awareness, NFC juice is popular with the concept of pure juice. In China, there are a number of manufacturers that produce NFC juice production line equipment. For example, Yangling Hong Mulberry Food Technology Co., Ltd. has developed a production equipment for mobile fresh apple juice. The equipment implements fully enclosed juice extraction to ensure the safety of finished products. In addition, you can move to the apple production area freshly picked juice, so that the freshness of the juice to a higher level. Shanghai Xinfei Machinery Technology Co., Ltd. has designed and manufactured a fully automatic NFC juice production line. The equipment covers the whole process of NFC juice production and packaging, and the single machine can be used for the production of sauces or other fruit and vegetable juice products.

 

In addition, the disposal of waste in apple production has also become a major concern. At present, there are a number of waste processing methods that have been transmitted to foreign countries during the processing of deep-processed apples: Russia has tried to extract certain ingredients from applesauce, mashed potatoes, etc. into edible plastic wrap; Switzerland has added dyes and glue to apple residues. Agents to produce environmentally-friendly handbags... With China’s increasing emphasis on energy conservation and environmental protection, China’s related businesses and equipment manufacturing businesses can make more efforts in this area, so that Apple’s industry can also contribute to energy conservation and environmental protection.