Innovative & advanced automation root crop sortation system to remove foreign objects, damaged and diseased crop, thus improving selected crop quality, maximising revenue, minimising waste, reducing technology cost & replacing ‘hard to find’ labour

Tong Engineering Ltd is one of the world's leading manufacturers of high quality vegetable grading and handling equipment. We have over 90 years of experience in manufacturing advanced and intelligent handling systems for efficient grading, washing, polishing and processing of a wide variety of crop.

There is growing 'desire' in the market place for crop quality assurance systems both from growers and processors, but for growers in particular, currently available system costs are prohibitive.

We aim to create a versatile, low cost quality assurance system that utilises the latest Artificial Intelligence software and conveyor handling technology. We aim to combine this with new designs of mechanical sorting hardware to create a reliable, low cost sorting system. We also want the system to be quickly and easily re-deployed for vegetables such as potatoes, onions, carrots, parsnips, swede and beetroot.

The system will be used to segregate foreign objects and vegetables with defects away from 'good' crop. These systems can be deployed at the farmer's store or in the processor's 'goods in yard' or in the processing factory to assess crop quality.

We aim to lower the capital cost of such systems and improve their versatility so they can be re-deployed on other root crops quickly and easily.