Allcontrols joins Cimbria’s global dealer network in Imola for the launch of the new SEA.XE optical sorter
Earlier this month our Managing Director, Jan McGregor and Service Director Scott Lowe travelled to Imola in Italy to attend Cimbria’s 2026 Dealer Meeting. Held over two days on 7 and 8 October, the event brought together Cimbria’s distribution partners from around the world and marked the launch of the company’s newest optical sorting platform, the SEA.XE.
As Cimbria’s sole partner here in the UK, events like this give us direct access to the people who design and manufacture the machines we install for our customers, and an early look at where the technology is heading next.
Day one: global strategy and product innovation
The opening day focused on the bigger picture. Following the welcome introductions, delegates heard about the strategic vision from Jacob Thomas, CEO of Grain & Protein Technologies (GPT), Cimbria’s parent company, outlining Cimbria’s plans for the year ahead.
The centrepiece of the morning was the optical sorting product innovation roadmap, which ended with the unveiling of the new SEA.XE optical sorter and its completely redesigned operator interface. The afternoon continued with best practice presentations from several dealers and a look at the Cimbria’s cutting edge initiatives going forward.
Day two: operational excellence
Day two was all about how Cimbria and its partners will continue to work and collaborate together to serve customers better. The morning was given over to Dealer Voice workshops, where partners discussed four themes: competitiveness and the market, effective and efficient sales, customer care, service and support, and future opportunities. Each group then presented its findings.
The afternoon covered customer care for Optical Sorting (for both recycling and grain and seed technologies) and the latest tools being made available to dealers, before closing with a wrap-up and open Q&A session with the Cimbria team. It was a valuable chance for us to raise the questions regarding the differing issues our customers face currently in both the UK recycling and food industries.
Valuable time to connect
Away from the presentations, both evenings offered the chance to catch up with the Cimbria team and with fellow dealers from around the world.
Sharing experiences with other Cimbria partners who face similar challenges in their own markets is one of the most useful parts of any dealer event, and this event was no exception.
Our thanks go to Cimbria and their teams from both Imola, Italy and Thisted, Denmark for organising such a well-run and informative event.
Introducing SEA.XE
So what is the SEA.XE?
Cimbria describes it as a new balance of performance, accessibility and simplicity. It brings together an industrial-grade build, a high-resolution multispectral vision system and a brand-new operator interface in a single, highly configurable optical sorting platform.
Here is what it can do…
- A configuration to suit your plant. SEA.XE is available with 1 to 6 channels, each with a 320 mm chute, giving total chute widths from 320 mm up to 1,920 mm. Up to four sections can be set up for simultaneous re-sorting, with re-sort, double re-sort and reverse sorting options, plus an optional 50:50 split on the last channel.
- Sees both sides of every particle. Quad-chromatic RGB full-colour plus NIR cameras inspect the product from the front and back as standard, distinguishing 16 million colours as well as infrared.
- Beyond the visible. Optional SWIR InGaAs cameras identify materials by their chemical composition, picking out foreign bodies that look identical in colour, while an optional UV configuration detects fluorescent defects for even higher purity.
- Shape and size built in. Integrated shape-sizing and defect-size control combine geometric and dimensional analysis with colour and infrared inspection.
- Fast, precise ejection. High-performance ejection valves on a 5 mm pitch cycle at up to 1,000 times per second, are IP55 protected and are built to last for billions of cycles, with fully adjustable timing and duration.
- Built for industrial use. A sealed, pressurised structure with optical box cooling and programmable automatic cleaning keeps the machine performing in demanding environments.
- A completely redesigned HMI. A 21.5″ HD touchscreen with a multilingual interface, unlimited recipes, remote control, PIN-based user profiles and real-time monitoring that warns operators before a shutdown occurs. Easy Set lets operators make essential adjustments without opening the full parameter set.
- Powered by BRAIN™ AI. Cimbria’s BRAIN™ artificial intelligence software comes built into every SEA.XE, making even complex sorting recipes quick to create, manage and optimise.
- One sorter, many applications. SEA.XE is designed for sorting and separating plastics such as Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), PVC as well as metals.
Check out this comparison diagram for the difference with other Cimbria models:
The result is a machine that recovers the maximum amount of good product and removes defects and foreign bodies that are difficult, or impossible, to spot with the naked eye.
Could SEA.XE work for you?
As Cimbria’s partner in the UK, Allcontrols can help you decide whether the SEA.XE is the right machine for your material streams and purity targets. Cimbria’s test laboratory facility can run trials on your own product stream and welcome customer’s witnessing these in person. Also explore the rest of the SEA range on our optical, colour and polymer sorting page.
To find out more about SEA.XE, call us on (+44) 01223 223900 or get in touch at sales@allcontrols.co.uk
