It’s late Spring in the Southern Hemisphere and if the weather is anything to judge by in New Zealand, we are on our way to a great Summer. Since our last up-date we have been busy building and commissioning new machines, expanding our production capability, adding to our agent/distributor team and looking after existing customers.

Manufacturing has been strong and steady with our teams putting in some huge efforts to keep up with demand for Compac machines around the world. We have come a long way in the past few years and the manufacturing capability of Compac has had to deal with a lot of changes to keep up with the demand. We believe from what you (our customers) and prospects are telling us that we are only on the beginning of additional major growth over the next few years. To support that we have secured a new assembly facility that is adjacent to our Spring St home. The building that shared fabrication and assembly will now house fabrication alone and the new assembly area will have nearly 5 times the current area, a new target to outgrow.

Helping all this growth along are newly named agents in Italy and South Africa. In Italy, Compac will be represented by SORMA. In South Africa, Compac will be represented by H.G. Molenaar. Both of these markets are important for Compac's long term success and we are pleased to be associated with both these companies. Click here and visit Global Agents to see a full listing or our international agents. We've slowly been building this team over the past few years and believe they not only share our excitement in Compac but that also share Compac's business philosophy and desire to provide the best solutions to fruit packers.

During the past couple of months Compac held a 2-day training session for our technicians to bring them up to speed with new developments and provide them with better tools to look after your machines. In addition there have been a couple of operator training schools, one in NZ and one in Washington State with Van Doren Sales to provide the most up to date information about Compac available. Further training schools will be held as time and appropriate information are available.

If you'd like to contribute any information or have any comments please forward them to mailto:newsletter@compacsort.com?Subject=Contribution to Compac Innovations

Enjoy!!

'An extraordinary use for an extraordinary machine’ is how Sundown Foods MD Peter McGee describes the thinking behind colour grading and sizing of tomatoes destined for the growing semi-dried market. Read more . . .

The Auckland-based company is blazing a trail for the grading industry with the successful application of its blemish-sorting technology to mandarins. Read more . . .

Technology originating in the New Zealand kiwifruit industry is helping French stone fruit packers sort, grade and pack their product off to market in better time and condition.
Read more . . .

Fresh vegetables now easier to track
Hitachi says it will produce nearly invisible RFID tags to be embedded in the inedible parts of fresh vegetables or the packaging materials for as little as 5 cents by 2005. More info . . .

You say tomato . . .
The California tomato harvest reaches its peak from July through September and the state, which harvests 10.5 million tons of tomatoes a year, is the nation's top producer of processing tomatoes. Stanislaus County Agricultural Commissioner Dennis Gudgel said the weather conditions this season have been good. The Modesto Bee (Calif.). More info . . .

Bumper cherry crop in Washington
Hot, dry weather led to a record-setting cherry crop in Washington this year. The state's harvest topped 10 million boxes for the first time in history.The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.).
More info . . .

Ahold sells off Chilean units
Supermarket group Ahold has sold off its Chilean Santa Isabel chain to South American conglomerate Cencosud FoodNavigator. More info . . .

Europeans can't get enough grapefruit juice
Consumption of Florida's ruby red grapefruit juice has increased 39% this year compared to last season. A steady supply coupled with the strength of the euro has made the juice relatively affordable in Europe. The Palm Beach Post. More info . . .

All about avocados
An increase in tastes for Hispanic foods has driven avocado consumption in the U.S. to double in the past 25 years. The Hass avocado dominates the California avocado industry, which produces about 90% of the country's supply of the fleshy produce. San Jose Mercury News More info . . .

California farmers fight foreign avocados
Arguing that Mexican avocados have a history of bug infestation, California avocado farmers are fighting the administration's push to open U.S. markets to avocado importation from Mexico. Officials argue the farmers are more concerned about economics than crop safety.San Diego Union-Tribune (8/24) More info . . .

Sunkist moves to purchase foreign fruit
The fruit growers' cooperative has decided to purchase foreign-grown fruit during off-peak months to remain a consistent single supplier to its customers. The co-op's growers will continue to provide citrus fruits during peak growing months, but fruit will be purchased from Argentina, Australia and South Africa during non-peak months. The Fresno Bee (Calif.)
More info . . .

This issue we introduce our fabrication team. These are a few of the guys who do the hard yards of precision cutting, welding and machining of Compac sorters.

For more information click here.

This issue we are profiling Gerawan Farms of Reedley, California. Gerawan Farms are one of the World’s leading stone fruit packers by volume, quality and innovation.

Reedley, California fruit packing supremos Gerawan Farming are not big on gambles, however calculated, but a move away from the ordinary has the company cruising its way through packing and sorting with better results than ever before.

For full story click here.

The manuals do not contain specific information about models installed previous to June 2003 although they do contain significant general information relevant to all machines. They have been developed to help you better maintain your machines between annual pre-season service checks that should still be scheduled with Compac trained service technicians.

If you’d like to order one of these contact your local sales representative and request a price quote for one of the following:

Multi-lane sorting machine manual: DOC-MNCSIZRMLS

Single-lane sorting machine manual: DOC-MNCSIZRSLS

Service Training
Compac recently held our annual technician’s service conference here in Auckland for Compac employees.

The conference was held, to train all our service representatives on our new products and software versions.

As in the previous year, we also put a lot of emphasis on "customer service". It is very important, that our customer service representatives are familiar with our standards and procedures.

We also worked on some case scenarios and highlighted the importance of the communication with you - our customer.

If you have any feedback or suggestions regarding this, please reply to us at mailto:service@compacsort.com?Subject=Enquiry from Compacc newsletter

Future Developments
We are in the process of developing more extensive training materials and presentations. We will announce these as they are developed and released.

Maintenance Suggestion
In this issue we’ll cover “Cup Testing”. It’s one maintenance check that is easy to complete and can really help with accurate weighing. The Cup Test checks to see if all carriers are weighing within a defined weight range. If they aren’t it’s likely they will effect your weight accuracy on the individual carrier(s) and your S.d. when calibrating. To complete this test you should have several carriers available that you know are in excellent condition, i.e. clean and wires correctly set, the sizer able to run empty for the duration of the test and some bin chalk. We suggest running the test at 200 – 300 rpm.

Start by completing a cup calibration. Then to test the cups, go to SCP, under Calibration choose Test Cups - Continuous. This pop-up Window will ask for a testing tolerance. If 5 grams is selected this test will highlight any cups that are + / - 5grms from the mean cup weight. We typically use 5 grams as the standard tolerance.

With the sizer running, this test will tip any cups that are deemed faulty at the test drop. By sitting next to the test drop (Usually the 1st or 2nd solenoid) you can mark any faulty cups with your chalk. Once the cups have done a couple of rounds and you’ve marked your cups, stop the machine and replace all the cups that you have marked. You may find some cups don’t consistently tip over, that’s because they are close to the tolerance limit, we suggest also replacing these cups. Once you’ve replaced the marked cups run the test again. All going we’ll you’ve now completed the test but you may find a few more on your second test, not uncommon. If you’re still having carriers tipping over after a couple of tests, try replacing the cup before the one that is tipping over as certain conditions will cause these cups to affect the following cup. If you’re still having difficulties, contact Compac service as you may have other wear issues on the weigh bridge or cup chain that need to be resolved.

Generally the only problem with cups that tip over will be the wire. These should be replaced with new wires and old wires thrown away.

Compac Display Modules (SDM 1000 Series)
Compac Sorting Equipment's SDM 1000 Series* display is designed specially for packers who want to reduce packing errors, save time and increase communication to packers around your machine. The SDM is another time saving and error reducing tool developed by Compac Sorting Equipment to increase your packing efficiencies. http://www.compacsort.co.nz/nt4.php