Project: Plant Cutting Sorting System
The Cutting Sorter: a fully automatic, high-speed sorting system for plant cuttings. Sorting 65,000 cuttings per hour for a uniform crop result and maximum market price.
From quality variation to automated uniformity
In the international ornamental horticulture and agro-industry, consistent product quality is the key to commercial success. To accurately classify large volumes of biological material, High Tech Alliance developed the Cutting Sorter.
This patented system automates the entire selection process for chrysanthemum cuttings and similar plant material with unprecedented precision.
About this project
The challenge
The challenge with the traditional way of working starts right at the source. Plant cuttings are grown at various locations worldwide and harvested by hand. Manually sorting these cuttings afterwards is complex and prone to error, leaving too much variation in the end product. These quality differences lead to uneven growth in the greenhouse, higher rejection rates and, ultimately, a lower product price on the market. In addition, the scarcity and rising cost of qualified staff create operational risks
The role of High Tech Alliance
High Tech Alliance led this project from the initial concept through to final realisation, developing the patented sorting system entirely in-house. As a specialist in mechatronics and industrial automation, our focus was on flawlessly integrating several complex disciplines:
Vision & Software Engineering: Integrating high-speed optical sensors and advanced vision software that analyses and classifies each individual cutting in a fraction of a second, based on stem thickness, stem length and leaf volume.
Custom Machine Building & Mechatronics: Designing and building the mechanical separation and ejection modules capable of processing biological material at top speed (65,000 units per hour) without damaging it.
Turnkey Controls: Developing the complete machine control system, including a user-friendly touchscreen interface that allows operators to easily and flexibly set the sorting parameters for each batch.
Solution and result
This gives High Tech Alliance a high-tech, all-in-one solution that fully autonomously processes and classifies up to 65,000 cuttings per hour. To do this, the machine runs through five streamlined process steps:
Infeed: The harvested cuttings are placed onto the infeed conveyor in tangles, manually or automatically, from boxes or bags.
Separation: The system mechanically singulates the cuttings from the tangles, so that they can be analysed individually.
Inspection: Optical sensors and vision technology capture images of each individual cutting at high speed. The software immediately classifies the material based on three freely configurable parameters: stem thickness, stem length and leaf volume.
Sorting & Ejection: Based on real-time classification and the configured quality standards, the individual cuttings are ejected at high speed.
Collection: The sorted cuttings are collected in crates by quality class for further distribution or processing.
The result of this mechanisation is an extremely efficient and predictable cultivation process. Thanks to the guaranteed uniformity of the starting material, the sector benefits from even growth, less production loss and higher market value. At the same time, dependence on manual labour is reduced to a minimum.
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