DIEMME THROWS ITSELF INTO THE OPTICAL SORTING

Grape reception: After Bucher Vaslin, Pellenc and Defranceschi, Diemme throws itself in its turn into the optical sorting. The first users are impressed by its quality in the carried out selection and the easiness of its cleaning.

° The equipment: GVS 8 is Diemme’s optical sorting equipment. The producer affirms a production from 8 to 10 Tons/h. The plant needs a sorting vibrating table for the grape distribution. Several “Chateaux” tested it during the last harvest.

° The principle: at the start of the selection, a video camera captures the image of the berries. A software analyses the images and locates the berries and all unwelcome vegetable pieces. At the outlet those pieces are thrown out by means of hundreds of nozzles sending a compressed air jet (at 6-8 bars) and discharged by an elevator belt.

° The interest: by a control display, the worker can sort the standards: colour, shape and size of the pieces to be thrown away. During the passage of the grape you can see on the display what the video camera is filming and what is indicated by the system to be rejected. The nozzles are automatic cleaned during the break phases.

° Price: from 100.000 to 120.000 €, according to the plant layout.

What they say…

Chateau Thénac (Dordogne) Management Director Ludwig Vanneron, 85 ha, 400.000 bottles.
“Very simple to clean”
“Our tests are conclusive. We tested Diemme’s machine with hand and mechanically harvested grape, with a very affected by millerandage Merlot with a production of 7-8 Tons/h. A high production, because the percentage of the grape to be sorted on the table was less than 5%. First of all we stated well what we wanted to reject; vegetable pieces, dried berries, the colour of the grape less than that the ripening is not enough…The machine carried out a very efficient and regular sorting without a break. It can replace about ten people at the grape reception. It allows to improve the quality of our second-rate wine, for which we cannot afford to take workers on. Above all the machine is user-friendly and very easy to clean. We just have to pay attention not to spoil the nozzles and optical readers with a too high water pressure. At the end of the day the cleaning is carried out in 45 minutes, when 2-4 hours are necessary for other equipments.”

Chateau Latour-Martillac (Gironde) Reception Manager Edouard Kressmann, , 50 ha, 300.000 bottles.
“Very few losses”
“Before investing in a sorting system, we compared Pellenc, Vaslin and Diemme machines. This last one carried out a very good work. We have to keep one skilled person on the spot to check the regulation of the sorting according the arrivals of grape, but it’s very user-friendly and quick to clean. All workers can finish working very soon and we don’t risk any microbic development in the points impossible to clean. We processed hand harvested grape at an interesting rhythm, up to 7 Tons/h. This speed could allow us to let the grape ripen more and, when the grape is ripe or the sky is threatening, to double the group of grape harvesters in order to harvest more quickly. About the sorting quality? Nothing to object to. Then Diemme allows very few losses! What was rejected at the first selection, berries left stuck with stalks or berries that bounce, we could sort it again. At the end we had only a 0.60% reject.”

Chateau Pape-Clément (Gironde) Vinyards Chief Patrice Hateau, from 180.000 to 200.000 bottles.
“We rejected everything was not perfect”
We hand select all our harvest. The quality at reception is almost perfect, but it’s necessary a lot of people. We tested Diemme optical sorting system with Merlot and Cabernets-Sauvignon from second-rate grape, hand harvested and mechanically destemmed. In all, this represented four 20 hl barrels. We drove the selection at full speed in order to get a perfect berry. We noticed that the equipment fits very well on an exacting parameter. I can say that nowadays it’s the best working optical sorting system. Then its cleaning is simple and quick. This allows us to save water, people…but what holds us back from investing in a mechanical sorting line is the quality of the destemming. The destemmers create too much juice and above all few berries remain entire and are respected in their integrity. We look forward to knowing soon qualitative developments in that way.”