French fry processors seem not to make the most out of potato batches. Dutch technology company PIP Innovations has, thus, come up with an unusual innovation: the S-Blade, a smart machine that saves damaged French fries from being wasted. “It’s pretty straightforward,” says Bart Kroef, PIP’s founder, “but behind that simplicity lies five years of work.”© PIP

“We already have the D-Blade, a precision cutting machine mainly used for potatoes, carrots, and strawberries,” says account director Chris de Jong. “It can also remove defects from French fries. But large-volume customers would have to buy multiple D-Blades. That might be good for us, but less so for them.”

After repeated enquiries from the market for an efficiency upgrade for French fries, PIP decided, five years ago, to develop a new way to better process large numbers of fries with black spots. The result of PIP’s research? The S-Blade. The “S” stands for “Strips,” because this machine is specially designed for processing strips – i.e., French fries.

© PIP

Less waste, higher yield
The S-Blade is placed after an optical sorter. That detects and removes fries with black spots, which would, unlike flakes, be used as animal feed or be composted. PIP, however, saw an opportunity: “Those fries aren’t wholly unusable,” explains Bart. “Often they have a single black spot which our machine simply cuts away.”

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The S-Blade uses multiple cameras to get an optional view of the fries’ tops and tails. The images from each camera are analyzed using artificial intelligence machine vision algorithms. “That makes the S-Blade analysis resilient to changing conditions and machine contamination. It also makes it easy to switch from, say, crinkle-cut to steakhouse fries. The S-Blade can process any type of fries with zero hardware or software adjustments,” Bart continues. And that entire process is ultra-fast. The S-Blade can process an average of eight tons of fries per hour.

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With the S-Blade, PIP Innovations is marketing a machine that combats food waste and has a short ROI. “It’s actually a no-brainer. Why throw something away when you can just cut it properly?” Chris concludes.

Bart Kroef
[email protected]
Chris de Jong
[email protected]

PIP Innovations
Beukenlaan 61
5409 SX Odiliapeel
+31 88 0227 201
[email protected]
www.pip-innovations.com