Ellips True-AI brings next-generation Citrus Grading to California
Discover how Ellips True-AI’s Elisam grader helps California citrus packers cut labor dependence, reduce rejections and ensure consistent grading at scale.
Explore articleOrange AI grading machine
Elisam Orange grading machine
powered by Ellips AI technology
Do you want to increase your grading capacity while tackling challenges like labor shortages and inconsistent quality? This AI-powered orange grading machine delivers consistent results, while achieving the highest throughput per sorting lane. You stay in full control, protecting your quality standards and boosting your profits, season after season.
Every orange counts, every single minute of grading is important. It’s why the Elisam AI orange grading machine is build for speed and exceptional capacity. Such huge throughput will transform your business productivity, profitability and reduce dependance on labor. Make every single orange from your harvest count, with minimal waste.
Explore how to expand your grading capacity
By consistently achieving your client’s quality requirements every season, it takes your reputation to the next level. And so the Elisam AI orange grader analyzes each orange inside and out, detecting size, weight, color, blemish, albedo breakdown, punctures, scarring, calyx, rot, stalk, crease, corrugations, mold, oleicellosis, end checks, navel deformations and more. With every orange graded correctly, you’ll maximize the return on each harvest while delivering exactly what your customer needs.
Discover how to achieve consistent quality
When it comes to growing oranges, you’re the expert. And when it comes to growing revenue, we know how to help. With the combination of our world-class Ellips TrueSort grading software and the Elisam orange grading machine, you’ll get the most value from your oranges by maximizing yields and reducing food waste. It’s highly flexible and lets you to meet any market demands or export criteria. Helping you strengthen your position as a preferred supplier and achieve a faster return on investment.
Ellips developed a new technology called True-AI. You can now deliver near-perfect grading accuracy through superior detection of the most challenging defects and orange characteristics such as clear rot, scarring and punctures.
The software has been trained using large amounts of data combined with the real-world expertise of our customers’ quality control teams. This data is collected from our global customer base across different seasons and growing conditions. By learning from this collective intelligence, True-AI continuously improves grading performance to get the maximum out of the orange grading machine.
Discover True-AI
The robust and reliable Elisam AI orange grader is an industry-leading orange grading machine. Its unique mechanical design delivers gentle, yet fast and accurate handling of any type of orange. Everything your business needs to accelerate its success.
Discover the Elisam grader
Working directly with hundreds of packhouses around the globe, we’ve fully integrated our machines into each individual facility. Together with our partners, we’ll do the same for you, ensuring your entire packhouse is optimized through seamlessly integrated orange processing machines. These machines connect multi-head weighers, bin tippers, washing and waxing machines, drying tunnels, palletizers, packing tables and automated packaging.With Ellips Group, you’re fully covered with a one-stop shop solution for all your packhouse needs.
As we offer a complete solution, our service doesn’t stop once the oranges are graded, we can also offer customized orange packing machines. Our technology is designed to reduce packing and labor costs, whilst making your packhouse more efficient. As it’s an automated system, it will distribute the oranges into boxes, bags, bins, totes or tanks, eliminating the need for human labor.
Discover how Ellips True-AI’s Elisam grader helps California citrus packers cut labor dependence, reduce rejections and ensure consistent grading at scale.
Explore article
Discover how Agrofrut Hellas uses AI grading to maintain citrus quality at 40+ tons/hour — meeting strict export demands while easing labour pressure.
Discover Customer Story
Artificial intelligence offers great opportunities to ensure superior quality at great speed. Discover the future of orange grading.
Explore article
Do you suffer from quality inconsistency due to extreme growing conditions? Are you struggling to sort out challenging defects? Discover your solution.
Explore article
Do you have a reliable labor force to be fully operational? Are you achieving maximum capacity to exploit full market potential? Discover your solution.
Explore articleInvesting in an AI-powered orange grading machine is an important decision. Below you’ll find answers to the questions we hear most often from orange growers and packers, including grading accuracy, labor savings, internal quality inspection, throughput, return on investment, service and support, data insights and customer experiences.
AI-driven orange grading machines help growers and packers improve efficiency, reduce labor dependency and deliver more consistent quality.
Key benefits include:
✅ Reduced labor requirements
✅ Higher throughput and processing capacity
✅ More consistent quality grading
✅ Improved pack-out rates
✅ Reduced waste and customer claims
✅Reliable performance throughout the season
By combining advanced AI grading, gentle product handling and high-speed processing, Elisam orange grading machines powered by Ellips True-AI help packhouses meet customer requirements while improving profitability.
An Elisam orange grading machine, powered by Ellips True-AI, uses advanced cameras and deep learning algorithms to inspect and classify every orange in real time.
The grading process includes:
This enables growers and packers to achieve consistent grading results, maximize pack-out and deliver reliable quality. Batch after batch.
Elisam orange grading machines powered by Ellips True-AI are designed for simple day-to-day operation. The system automatically manages complex grading parameters, reducing the need for manual adjustments and operator input.
Benefits include:
✅ Easy-to-use operator interface
✅Automatic grading parameter management
✅ Fast product and grade changes
✅Reduced training requirements
✅ Consistent grading performance
When adjustments are needed, settings can be changed quickly and intuitively, allowing operators to maintain full control of the grading process.
Yes, Ellips grading technology can be integrated into your existing sorting machine through a retrofit solution. This allows you to upgrade to AI-powered grading without replacing your entire machine.
A typical retrofit includes:
This improves grading accuracy, consistency and performance while reducing investment costs compared to purchasing a completely new sorting machine.
In practice, defects in the final product are typically reduced to below 2%, while only a small percentage of good oranges is removed during sorting.
Elisam orange grading machines equipped with Ellips True-AI deliver highly consistent and objective grading results. By eliminating subjective human judgment, the system reduces variability and minimizes grading errors, even at high processing speeds. As the system processes more data, True-AI continues to improve its ability to detect and classify defects accurately.
Ellips True-AI inspects the entire surface of every orange and detects a wide range of external quality defects with exceptional accuracy.
Detectable defects include:
With detection accuracy down to 0.2 mm, the system delivers consistent and objective grading results.
Benefits include:
✅ Reduced customer claims
✅Improved pack-out rates
✅ More consistent grading
✅ Reliable shipment quality
✅Stronger customer relationships
Yes, the Ellips orange grading software allows you to define and apply multiple quality classes based on your specific requirements.
For example,oranges can be sorted into:
The system is fully flexible, enabling you to customize grading standards for different markets, customers and applications.
This helps ensure each orange is directed to the most appropriate market, maximizing value and maintaining consistent quality standards.
Elisam orange grading machines typically process 3 to 5 tons per hour per lane, depending on orange size, average weight and cup fill percentage. For example, with an average orange weight of 200 grams, one lane handles around 5 metric tons per hour.
Capacity can be scaled through multi-lane configurations:
1 lane: 3-5 metric tons per hour
4 lanes: up to 20 metric tons per hour
8 lanes: up to 40 metric tons per hour
This high-capacity design helps packhouses handle peak volumes efficiently while maintaining consistent grading performance and meeting delivery deadlines.
Labor savings depend on your operation, product mix and current grading process. By automating grading, an Elisam orange grading machine can significantly reduce the need for manual sorting and lower labor costs.
For example, Agrofrut Hellas, one of Greece’s largest citrus exporters, uses an Elisam grader with Ellips True-AI to process more than 40 tons of citrus per hour. This lets the company meet its daily targets without hiring extra staff, and keep quality and productivity stable even when seasonal labor is scarce.
Benefits include:
✅ Lower labor costs
✅ Reduced dependence on seasonal workers
✅ Higher throughput
✅ More consistent grading results
✅ More predictable operations during peak season
Yes, Ellips True-AI enables full-speed grading regardless of fruit quality. The system maintains maximum processing speed while accurately detecting defects, even in mixed-quality batches.
Traditionally, batches with uneven fruit quality often required slower processing speeds to maintain grading accuracy. With True-AI, this is no longer necessary.
Benefits include:
✅ Maximum throughput
✅ Accurate defect detection
✅Consistent grading performance
✅Higher operational efficiency
✅More volume processed without compromising quality
Yes. For most orange growers and packers, an AI-powered grading machine pays for itself within a few seasons by reducing costs, increasing efficiency and improving fruit value.
Key value drivers include:
✅ Reduced labor costs
✅ Higher pack-out rates
✅ More consistent quality
✅ Increased throughput
✅ Lower waste and fewer claims
In addition to cost savings, AI grading helps maximize revenue by sorting fruit more accurately into higher-value categories.
The exact return depends on your operation. Ellips and Elisam can provide a customized ROI calculation based on your volumes, labor situation and business goals.
The payback period depends on factors such as production volume, labor costs and the level of automation. In most cases, orange grading machines achieve a return on investment within a couple of years.
Typical savings come from:
✅ Reduced labor costs
✅ Higher pack-out rates
✅ Lower losses from waste and claims
By improving both efficiency and product quality, the system quickly contributes to a more profitable operation.
To provide a clear and realistic estimate, Ellips and Elisam can calculate the expected return on investment based on your specific operation, volumes, labor situation and market requirements.
We follow a structured process to help you find the best solution for your operation and maximize your return on investment:
This approach ensures you have a clear understanding of the technology, expected results and business impact before making a decision.
Ellips brings more than 37 years of experience in grading technology, with over 3,500 grading solutions installed worldwide across 19 different fruit and vegetable types.
Together with Elisam and Elifab, the company supports a global installed base of more than 350 grading machines and 3,000 retrofit installations, helping growers and packers improve quality, efficiency and consistency.
As a family-founded company, Ellips combines proven technology with long-term customer relationships, delivering practical solutions backed by decades of industry expertise.
Yes, Ellips is a family-founded company with over 37 years of experience in grading technology. Founded by Erwin Bakker, the company is now shaped by the next generation, with his children Mitchel, Levi and Jody actively contributing to areas such as product development, customer relationships and user experience.
This combination of experience and new perspectives ensures continuous innovation in AI-powered grading solutions, while maintaining a strong focus on long-term partnerships, trust and practical solutions that work in daily operations.
Elisam and Ellips provide fast, expert support to keep your packhouse running efficiently throughout the season. Many issues can be resolved remotely by experienced engineers, while local service specialists are available when on-site assistance is required.
Operators receive comprehensive training to confidently manage grading, system settings and daily production.
To ensure long-term performance, we provide ongoing maintenance and support, including:
This proactive approach helps minimize downtime, maximize throughput and keep your grading operation performing at its best year after year.
Installation time depends on the size of the system and the complexity of the packhouse. Smaller installations and retrofits can often be completed within days, while larger projects may take 2-4 weeks.
Each project is carefully planned by Elisam and Ellips specialists to minimize disruption to your operation. From mechanical installation and software integration to testing and commissioning, experienced teams manage the entire process to ensure your grading system is up and running as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Yes, Ellips and Elisam grading systems are designed for long-term use and continuous improvement. Regular software updates enhance performance and introduce new capabilities over time.
The system is built around modular architecture, allowing you to upgrade components as technology evolves, including:
For existing sorting machines, Ellips also offers retrofit solutions, enabling you to upgrade your current equipment with the latest grading technology without replacing the entire machine.
This helps protect your investment and ensures your operation remains competitive for years to come.
Yes, Ellips TrueSort provides real-time dashboards and built-in reporting tools, giving operators and management full visibility over grading performance.
Live dashboards track key metrics such as:
This helps teams identify issues early, respond quickly and keep operations running efficiently. The system also includes built-in reports for products, classes, and packaging, which can be exported or integrated with tools such as Microsoft Power BI for deeper analysis and reporting. By combining real-time monitoring with historical data, TrueSort helps you improve efficiency, reduce errors and continuously optimize performance.
Yes. Ellips TrueSort collects detailed grading data that helps you improve quality, efficiency and profitability over time.
You can use this data to:
With the optional Data Acquisition feature, grading data can also be combined with external sources such as weather, storage and logistics data to support:
By turning grading data into actionable insights, Ellips TrueSort helps you continuously optimize performance across your operation.
Ellips TrueSort tracks every orange from intake to final packaging, digitally linking each product to its grower, field and batch. This provides complete visibility throughout the grading and packing process, making it easy to trace products, verify quality and meet food safety requirements.
Traceability data also helps you:
✅ Support accurate grower payments
✅ Improve quality control
✅ Reduce food waste
✅ Respond quickly to recalls
✅ Protect brand reputation
The result is full product traceability and greater control across your entire supply chain.
Still have questions? Our full FAQ has detailed answers on AI grading technology, quality and defect detection, capacity and labor savings, return on investment, installation, service and support, data insights and more.
Explore all Orange Grading FAQs