World Grain - July 2014 - 106

SUPPLIER NEWS

AGCO acquires Intersystems
DULUTH, GEORGIA, U.S. - AGCO, a worldwide manufacturer
and distributor of agricultural equipment, announced recently that it
has agreed to acquire Intersystems Holdings Inc. and subsidiary, subject to certain regulatory approvals. Headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S., Intersystems is a leading manufacturer of commercial
material handling solutions sold to grain operations globally.
"Intersystems products are recognized for their performance, quality and efficiency by its customers, including feed mills, inland grain
terminals and sea port facilities. The company is an excellent fit with

GSI and will allow us to expand our grain handling and storage business in the fast growing off-farm segment," stated Martin Richenhagen, AGCO's chairman, president and chief executive officer.
AGCO is a global leader focused on the design, manufacture and
distribution of agricultural machinery. In 2013, AGCO had net sales
of $10.8 billion. AGCO products are sold through five core machinery brands, Challenger, Fendt, Massey Ferguson, Valtra and GSI, and
are distributed globally through 3,100 independent dealers and distributors in more than 140 countries worldwide.

InVivo adds Bühler's SORTEX technology
LONDON, ENGLAND - The Bühler
Group announced on May 13 that InVivo, a
French leader in grain storage and logistics,
has installed a SORTEX A optical sorter at
its port facility in Metz, France. This is InVivo's first optical sorter at one of its port
silos in France.
InVivo is responsible for handling
around 6 million tonnes of grain annually,
via ships, trains and barges. It is responsible for 12 grain storage sites, with a total capacity of 1.5 million tonnes of grain,
and also stores and loads grain at eight
other InVivo-managed, partnership silos at
ports throughout France. Its quality fulfilment and efficiency is pivotal in ensuring
France's grain exports, which account for
half of the country's grain production.
"Our mission is to provide efficient logistics for high quality grain exports," said
Laurent Manderfeld, head of investment for
Invivo, who confirmed that the company
was also responsible for four port silos in
Morocco, Hungary and Romania, as part
of its international expansion. "All our silos have ISO 9001 certification as well as

Charte Sécurité Alimentaire food safety and
GTP certifications."
As InVivo prides itself in maintaining the
quality of the grain it stores and transports, the
industry issue surrounding ergot contamination
in wheat during 2013 represented a significant
challenge for the company. An unusually high
growth of the ergot fungus on wheat from the
2013 harvest meant that around 40,000 tonnes
of the wheat stored by InVivo was potentially
unfit for human food grade quality.
"Our mechanical equipment was no longer
sufficient to achieve the standard of quality
we required, given the higher level of ergot
contamination we were experiencing in incoming wheat, and we knew we had to act
fast in order to reduce potential losses," said
Manderfeld.
During 2013, wheat exhibited ergot contamination levels varying between 0.8% to
1.6% and InVivo was committed to fulfilling
or improving on the requirement of 0.05%
maximum of ergot contamination - the point
at which grain is relegated to animal feed.
InVivo and its partner, EMC2, turned
to Bühler Sortex to provide a solution that

would allow it to maintain quality and ensure
that the wheat it stored was not downgraded
to cattle feed.
With the installation of the SORTEX A
at its Metz facility - with its state-of-theart optical sorting and handling technology,
lighting and feed systems - InVivo is now
able to process incoming grain to remove
ergot-contaminated product, consistently
achieving a maximum ergot contamination
level of just 0.02% in the finished grain, regardless of the level of input contamination.

Bühler installs optical sorter in Hungary
LONDON, ENGLAND - The Bühler Group recently installed
its SORTEX Z+ optical sorter at Vetömag Derecske Kft, a familyowned seed production and cleaning business in Hungary, Germany.
In 2009, Vetömag established a seed cleaning plant in Derecske,
where 20 employees are now dedicated to the quality cleaning and
sorting of products such as mustard seeds, oil radish, dry peas and
rapeseed, although the site has the flexibility to clean other products
when required.
"We are equipped to prepare all kinds of grain crops and seeds
for sealing as well as pre-cleaning, cleaning and packing, according
to the needs of our customers," said Ference Pálkutas of Vetömag
Derecske Kft.
Since its inception, Vetömag Derecske Kft has seen the business
expand rapidly along with the number and variety of products that
customers request to be cleaned. In order to meet this increasing
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demand, the company began its extensive research into advanced
cleaning technology and, in 2013, invested in a bichromatic SORTEX Z+ optical sorter from Bühler.
"Previously we were reaching only half of our specified onetonne-per-hour targets and had to sort twice, in order to recover good
product that was being rejected or wasted," said Pálkutas. "Ultimately, we had difficulty achieving acceptable yields."
The new optical sorter is located as a standalone machine. It receives
product from Vetömag's pre-cleaning equipment, such as gravity tables and indent cylinders, and determines the purity of input product.
High speed ejectors enable precise ejection, while uniform feed and
optimal illumination result in the most accurate separation of defective
items and foreign material on the basis of color, shape or other optical
properties. The Bühler SORTEX series combines reliability, accuracy
and flexibility, with consistent and high quality throughput.
July 2014 / World Grain / www.World-Grain.com

7/1/2014 2:46:13 PM

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World Grain - July 2014

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