Visar Sorting demonstrates Sortop Potatoes prototype on Potato Europe

Visar Sorting, a Swiss manufacturer of an optical sorting system for carrots, used Potato Europe to gauge the interest of the potato industry for their prototype of a sorting system for potatoes

Roots of the company

Visar Sorting is a Swiss company founded to develop and manufacture an optical sorting system for carrots.

The company wase stablished in 2008 by Daniel Pitton and Olivier Kleynen. Daniel Pitton had been searching for an effective sorting system for carrots forseveral years. He came across the research and development work done by Olivier Kleynen at his Belgium-based company Visar Sprl.

Once they did not see any system on the market that responded to the needs of carrot producers, they decided to work together to industrialise and commercialise the future optical sorting system Sortop Carrot.

The two men brought an assembly workshop and technical office along with a team of engineers and technicians together in Oppens in Switzerland to assemble the first prototype. In 2010 the first production line was installed with the cooperation of Stoll Frères SA at Yverdon, producer of 6000 tons of carrots per year.
 

Visar's Sortop Carrots system in production

Following conclusive and even very promising test results, several installations were pursued in Switzerland during 2010 and 2011. The Sortop Carrot system was improved and made reliable, and is now being exported to carrot producers across the world.

From Carrots to Potatoes

Now Visar is exploring the opportunities to launch a fully automated potato sorter, based on the same concept as their initial carrot sorter. A prototype of the machine was demonstrated at Potato Europe in Kain, Belgium

Daniel Pitton:
 

“VISAR's new machine, Sortop Potatoes, attracted real interest from visitors. Thank you if you were one of them!

“We were really excited to present our prototype to the PotatoEurope's visitors and all we can say is that the first feedback is extremely positive! A lot of people confided us to have revealed a machine able to meet their needs in terms of quality and functionality but also in profitability.”

“So we can finalize the last mechanical adjustments with the certainty that our machine will satisfy to a real need ant that's really gratifying! ”

Visar's Sortop Potatoes

Sortop Potatoes is an electronic potato sorter that can sort any batch of potatoes with maximum consistency and efficiency. 100% automatic, this machine does not require any manual work whatsoever, thereby optimizing the yield.

Daniel Pitton continues:

“If you missed PotatoEurope, our next demo will take place at the British Potato event at Harrogate in England, November 12-13, 2015 in partnership with Tong Engineering, our UK distributor.”

“And the first production line with Sortop Potatoes can soon be visited in Switzerland. Stay tuned!”