Are you putting your storage quality and your grader at risk?
If that sounds familiar, you're not alone. Every grower, packer and farm handling volume of potatoes or onions knows the feeling: no matter how careful the harvest, stones, clods, debris and obvious defects always seem to find their way onto the line. And once they're there, they don't just sit quietly. They cost you, in more places than one.
#1. Your grading machine wasn't built to handle stones.
Rollers, cups and belts are designed for potatoes and onions, not for the debris riding along with them. Every stone or clod that reaches your grader is another chance for damage. Rollers, belts and components suffer unnecessary wear. That damage can lead to unexpected downtime, disrupting your operation and reducing throughput. And once a machine is down, repairs, engineer call-outs and replacement parts drive up your costs even further. On top of that, a dirty batch simply grades less consistently, undermining the accuracy you're paying your grading line for.
#2. Extreme defects raise infection risk. Stones and clods take up space.
Two problems, both serious. Extreme defects, rot and disease that reach your storage pile can infect the healthy potatoes and onions sitting right next to them. Turning one bad piece into a much bigger loss. At the same time, stones and clods take up space that should be filled with sellable product and consume the same cold-storage energy meant to protect good produce. What goes into storage decides how it comes out. Neither problem has any business being there in the first place.
#3. Manual sorting can't keep up with harvest peaks.
Pulling stones and clods by hand has long been the default solution. It works, up to a point. But manual sorting is inconsistent from one shift to the next. It's difficult to staff reliably. It's nearly impossible to scale when harvest peaks hit. Labour is also getting harder to find. It's more expensive to keep. Right at the moments your operation needs it most.
Every stone costs you twice.
Add it all up. Together, these challenges add hidden costs across the whole operation:
- Damaged equipment, production stop and maintenance
- Higher infection risk
- Lost storage capacity and wasted energy
- Weaker grading performance
- A labour bill that keeps climbing
It's not one cost. It's several, stacking on top of each other with every stone, clod or extreme defect that slips through.
Manual sorting has its limits. There's a better way.
Leading operations are starting to remove unwanted material at the very start of the line. Before it ever reaches storage or the grader. One automated step. A cleaner, more predictable batch every time.
The answer to it all:
the CleanFlow Pre-Sorter.
CleanFlow Pre-Sorter is Ellips' newest innovation. An intelligent pre-sorting solution built for potato and onion operations of every size. Operations that want to improve line efficiency and reduce their dependency on manual sorting.
Positioned right at the front of the line, it removes: stones, clods and obvious defects such as rotten potatoes/onions, green potatoes, damaged products, undersized product and oversized objects. All before they reach storage or the grader. CleanFlow brings Ellips' proven detection intelligence to the front of the process. Everything downstream only has to deal with the product that matters.
Here's why growers, packers and farms are adding CleanFlow to their lines:
#1. Powered by Ellips True-AI, at high throughput.
CleanFlow uses the same Ellips True-AI detection technology behind Ellips' advanced grading systems. It scans every potato and onion moving through the line. It identifies unwanted material and off-size product quickly and accurately. Even at high speed. Even at high volume.
#2. Storage that holds what you actually wanted to keep.
CleanFlow clears out stones, clods and extreme defects before the pile forms. That frees up storage capacity and cold-storage energy for good product. It also reduces the risk of rot spreading through a batch.
#3. A grading machine that lasts longer and grades better.
Keeping stones and clods out of your grading machine means less wear on rollers, cups and belts. Fewer repairs. More consistent grading performance from a cleaner batch input.
#4. Up to 80% less manual pre-sorting labour.
CleanFlow takes over the repetitive work of pulling stones and clods by hand. Work that often ties up a full intake team. Operations can cut a 5-person team down to 1. That frees the rest of the team for work where people add real value.
#5. Up to 120 t/h, built for peak harvest.
Harvest doesn't wait. Neither should your line. CleanFlow keeps pace with up to 120 tonnes per hour. Intake doesn't become the bottleneck during the busiest weeks of the season.
#6. Smooth, stable production.
A stone-free flow is a stable flow. With unwanted material removed early — including automatic sorting of under- and oversized product, with extremely large objects detected and stopping the machine so an operator can safely remove them — your line runs steadily at maximum capacity. No unexpected surprises further down the process.
#7. Sized to fit your operation, installed in a day.
Available in three widths: 1, 2 and 2,5 metres. CleanFlow scales from a single farm line to a full industrial operation. Its compact, robust design fits into the setup you already run. Plug-and-play installation is completed in a single day.
#8. Gentle on the good stuff.
Unwanted pieces are lifted out one at a time. A controlled 35 cm drop keeps healthy potatoes and onions moving through untouched. Even at full speed.
#9. Lower costs. Higher profit.
Less downtime. Less repair. Better quality. Higher overall profitability. When you stop paying for stones and clods twice, that saving goes straight to your bottom line.
Protect your storage, your grading process and your profit.
CleanFlow removes unwanted product before it has the chance to cost you anything. Valuable downstream capacity, energy, labour and resources stay focused on the potatoes and onions that matter. It's front-of-line intelligence. Built for the operations that can't afford to keep paying for stones and clods twice.