How are garlic sorting "champions" made?

This year, Meyer once again won a national honor - Champion Enterprise in Manufacturing Color Sorter. This honor is designed to recognize "long-term focus on certain specific segments of the manufacturing market, production technology or process of international leadership, single product market share among the world's leading enterprises".

Behind the "champion" is the long-term trust and support of our customers. In order to express our gratitude, we will launch a series of reports on the "Road to Champion" to share with you the bits and pieces along the way.

This issue into the garlic processing industry ......

Shandong is the gathering place of garlic processing in China. Come here, the local leading enterprises, Mr. Wang said: "80% of people buy Meyer color sorter for whole garlic, clove of garlic, and sliced garlic sorting!"

The mount of processing that took 12 hours to complete is now reduced to 5 hours after using Meyer color sorter

What is the competitiveness of Meyer to be the Champion of color sorter manufacturer?

Advancement is the key

1. Solving the garlic scar sorting problem

Garlic scars have always been a key problem affecting the grading, pricing and acceptance. Especially for the "factory garlic" which is to be further processed, it is almost impossible to allow the existence of garlic scars.

In the early days, the color sorters on the market had limited recognition accuracy, garlic scars can not be sorted cleanly. Many processing plants had to invest additional manpower to further manually sort, which increased production costs.

The sorting effect of Meyer color sorter

In 2019, Meyer R&D engineers found the problem, and started the "garlic scar war" by fighting in the market and soaking in the customer's workshop. According to the product manager recalled, the determination at that time was "not to go back until the problem is solved", the whole team often worked late into the night, sometimes not even care about eating.

In the end, Meyer used two key moves to completely solve the industry problem of garlic scar sorting.

One is the application of a large target surface sensor with high sensitivity. By enlarging the light-sensitive area, Comprehensively improved garlic scar recognition accuracy.

The second is the application of dynamic color gamut technology. Through the 3D color enhancement algorithm, the "carryover rate" is only half of similar products in the market.

Accept

Raw Material

Reject

After the problem was solved, garlic sorting said goodbye to "artificial re-sorting"! At that moment, Meyer product manager proudly said: from tonight onwards, garlic color sorting entered the unmanned era!

2. Facing New Challenges with Ease

In recent years, due to changes in the climate environment, many garlic has deteriorated due to improper storage, resulting in "frozen cloves", which affects the price. However, "frozen cloves" have complex differences in characteristics, which makes it difficult to be cleanly sorted by conventional color sorters.

To solve this problem, Meyer decided to empower the development of the industry with the most cutting-edge AI deep learning technology, which requires a large amount of data labeling to drive and a great deal of computing resources.

However, Meyer has long grasped the development trend of pattern recognition and AI technology, and built the industry's first large sample library and large model library based on years of data accumulation.

In 2016, Meyer color sorter realized the function of Internet service, with nearly 20,000 globally networked devices covering nearly 1,000 kinds of materials, which generates huge sample data every day, allowing Meyer products to rapidly iterate the deep learning model.

Abundant technical reserves and deep understanding of the needs allow Meyer to quickly realize AI deep learning sorting in the garlic industry. The latest generation of products realizes 40% increase in the precision of frozen clove sorting by carrying a UHD high-definition and high-speed deep learning system, and also effectively solves the problems of yellow skin, small buds, and roots, so that the quality of garlic can be further improved.

Stability is the key

After cutting the roots of garlic, the processing must be completed on the same day and put into storage, otherwise it will soon deteriorate due to oxidation. Especially from May to November each year is the peak of garlic processing, equipment if not continuous and stable operation, the loss can be big!

Fundamentally, it is to ensure the reliability of the equipment, no matter how the industry develops, this is the most basic and core key indicators of agricultural machinery. If the reliability is not enough, the more advanced, more intelligent can not solve problem.

Therefore, Meyer's definition of the product is: no matter one or 10,000 units, the quality is always the same. So, how to build a highly reliable product?

Famous scientist Qian Xuesen once said, "Reliability is designed, produced and managed." Meyer also understands this, and as early as 2015, it has been firmly promoting "engineering manufacturing".

1. In the design stage: to ensure the stability of the product structure by keeping the good source.

First of all, each component of Meyer color sorter has been designed through "standardization", and the shape, size, material and connection method all follow the unified standard.

Secondly, the complex products are "modularized", like building blocks, so that the systems and components work together smoothly.

Finally, through the "intelligent" design means, one by one analysis, insight into the potential risks and dangers.

2. In the production stage, Meyer insists on using first-class technology and equipment to create first-class products.

In recent years, Meyer has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to build two intelligent factories, realizing 100% automation and intelligent production of key components, of which the coverage rate of intelligent robots is over 50%.

Meyer intelligent factory-component assembly production base

Meyer intelligent factory-painted sheet metal production base

For example, the core component - Midea Maglev Ejector 3.0 - has realized a magnificent transformation of robustness and durability. Through integrated structural design, "black light factory" unmanned production, it can achieve ultra-high-speed response, milliseconds start and stop, no air leakage, no exhaust, stable effect, and no longer wear parts.

For example, the product body has formed a fortress of strength. First of all, the "box" has been done to achieve a seamless effect, through the introduction of Anhui Province's first fully-intelligent bending center, to achieve the "folding instead of welding", greatly improving the processing accuracy, but also reflects the green environmental protection.

Meyer automatic bending centre

Sheet metal flexible processing line

The second is the stability and reliability of the "frame", which is scientifically designed to reduce the number of welding points and realize fully automatic welding by robots. Each weld of the product has been carefully calculated and optimized, and the pattern after welding shows a regular arrangement like fish scale pattern or ripple, which not only ensures the structural strength, but also reflects the "order" and "precision" in the beauty of craftsmanship.

Technical details of Meyer processing

Automated racks welding production line

In addition, Meyer had also built a far-leading assembly line. The originally complex assembly process has been broken down into a number of simple modular processes, which are separately assembled by professionals in accordance with standardized procedures, fully ensuring high-quality delivery.

Meyer belt color sorter assembly line put into operation in 2024

3. In terms of management,Meyer continuously improves and optimizes through strict supplier brand level management, full life cycle management of core devices and systematic inspection to ensure that the products meet the reliability requirements in all aspects so as to enhance the overall reliability level.

Premium service is the key

The after-sales service work of the color sorter is also particularly important.

In the peak season of garlic processing, customers will be due to the raw material quality difference is too large or occasional misoperation led to the sorting effect is not stable. In addition, garlic is easy to oxidize and deteriorate characteristics, solve these problems can not wait until tomorrow!

Starting from the customer's needs again, Meyer has established localized service stations in the major garlic processing areas. The local after-sales engineers said that they can guarantee to arrive at the site within one hour if the customer encounters an emergency.

Meyer after-sales engineers is serving customer

Today, Meyer has been sincerely accompanying the garlic processing industry for more than ten years. Looking back on the way back, Mr. Wang said with deep feeling:

"In 2012, when Meyer sales manager came to our factory for the first time, he saw that the workshop was full of workers picking garlic by hand. I casually mentioned that the monthly salary of so many people was tens of thousands of dollars, and he said it would be better to let Meyer try and save the money! I didn't expect Meyer to do what it said it would do, and we've been working together ever since, and it's been very reassuring. I think we all choose Meyer, is because of the superior quality and excellent service!"

"Meyer, Reliable Choice" is no longer a slogan, but a "sense of security" that has been passed down by word of mouth to our customers. In order to live up to this trust, Meyer always reminds itself that it should consistently uphold the spirit of contract with customers, so that the quality, service throughout the implementation of each contract at the beginning and end.

This spirit enables Meyer to win the market, win the trust of customers, and obtain a steady stream of development momentum.

Appreciate your support, let's move forward together！