Transforming even the hardest shell into new opportunities
When quality hides beneath a shell, the real challenge is to see what’s inside without breaking it.
Valnoce, a family-run company from Faenza (Italy), known for its premium walnuts, set out to guarantee the same high quality in every nut. To achieve that, the team needed full visibility of both the external and internal quality of each walnut, including grading, to ensure consistency, efficiency, and zero waste.
Today, every walnut reaching our customers tells the same story of quality. Q Eye X is simply the best walnut grading system out there.
LUCA VALGIMIGLI
Agronomy & Quality Manager, Valnoce
Challenge
Every single inspection was a gamble between precision and waste.
In fact, traditional grading systems could only estimate internal quality based on weight, offering no real insight. Valnoce relied on manual and semi-automatic checks that often led to false rejects and, therefore, to unnecessary waste, discarding good product simply due to limited precision.
Solution
In collaboration with Valnoce, BIOMETiC developed the first Q Eye X system for walnuts, building on more than 20 years of experience in industrial X-ray applications. A compact, all-in-one solution that performs external color and shell surface inspection, internal analysis, and grading in a single pass.
“Before Q Eye X, we used less advanced methods and ended up wasting good product.
Now we can be extremely precise, check both the outside and the inside — all in one system, and without any waste.”— Luca Valgimigli, Agronomy & Quality Manager, Valnoce
After harvesting and drying, Valnoce’s walnuts pass through Q Eye X, where both external and internal parameters are analyzed.
The system detects shell color variations as well as internal defects like empty or partially empty nuts, ensuring a reliable and consistent grading at every step. disrupting operations.
Installation was fast and seamless, supported by BIOMETiC’s 24/7 customer support.
Results
- 20% fewer false rejects, reducing waste and improving yield
- Each walnut is fully inspected — inside and out — ensuring premium product quality
- Compact system, easy to integrate into existing lines
- Confidence to expand production with new orchards and long-term growth.
Partner
The project has been implemented together with Chapel Engineering.
