Kronen unveils new products at Fruit Logistica

Kronen presented several new machinery solutions for the fresh produce business at Fruit Logistica in Berlin.

The German group’s new Tona V cutting machine celebrated its world premiere at the trade show, a processing solution that cuts fruit and vegetables into wedges, slices and sticks.

It said that the Tona V complemented the company’s existing portfolio of cutting solutions, processing products with a maximum diameter of 120mm and a maximum length of 150mm.

The machine’s different cutting inserts could be changed quickly, Kronen outlined, and the machine was easy to clean, thus enabling efficient processing even when frequently alternating between different products.

Tona V could be used to prepare products such as tomato segments, potato wedges, onion rings, zucchini or mushroom slices, carrot sticks and pepper chunks, with a process a capacity of up to 3,600 pieces per hour, it said.

Visitors also saw the company’s Robot Avocado Line, a system that can halve, pit and peel avocados automatically.

The line removes the avocado with a grabber specially adapted to the fruit and uses a rotating movement on a pitting unit to remove the stone from the first half.

Knives cut the avocado flesh in half and clamp the stone, before the robot removes the peel from the flesh by moving it over the peeling knife.

Kronen pointed out that this automatic processing offered a number of advantages, namely high reliability, hygiene, flexibility and planning in production, with up to 1,000 avocados per hour processed with three robots.

”We are delighted to have received such a positive response from the international industry and to have sparked such interest in both our innovative, new solutions and our well-established products,” said managing director Stephan Zillgith.

“The robot that processed avocados in a live demonstration at our booth was a particularly eye-catching highlight,” he noted. ”After all, the use of robotics is still somewhat of a rarity in the fresh-cut sector. Against this background, our robotic line, which is the only one of its kind in the world, was a must-see for many visitors.”

The Kronen stand also showcased a new product in the world of tabletop devices, the MMC 150 manual melon chunk cutter, which enables users to cut fresh melon into bite-size chunks.

The tabletop device can cut melons up to 150mm in diameter and up to 200 mm long into slices and chunks in a single operation.