Case Studies

The Intelligent Further Processing solution from Marel Food Systems will transform the ways in which salmon processors monitor and ensure the safety of their products, as well as help them increase their yield and drastically reduce labour costs.

The Intelligent Further Processing solution from Marel Food Systems will transform the ways in which salmon processors monitor and ensure the safety of their products, as well as help them increase their yield and drastically reduce labour costs.

Food processors are continuously searching for new and improved ways to monitor their production. “When asking food producers about their views on future processing and what is needed to increase monitoring efficiency, most of them wish for a system that allows them to place raw material in one side and obtain the finished product at the other, whilst also monitoring and registering important information throughout the whole process. “ says Rúnar Birgisson, fish division manager in Marel´s consulting centre.

He continues “Marel Food Systems has achieved this with their new intelligent production control software, Innova.”

Innova can be implemented to monitor yield, trimming, portioning and inventory control, creating an ideal environment for today’s food processor. It provides a complete IT solution that optimizes profits and overall production performance
The software automatically registers  all key performance indicators and the fish itself, can be traced all the way back to it’s origin if needed, thereby ensuring food safety.

A combination of the best equipment

The latest solution that Marel Food Systems is offering salmon processors is controlled by the Innova software.  The Intelligent Further Processing solution combines the expertise as well as the tried and tested equipment from Marel Food Systems’ brands in one solution.

The solution consists of the  L50 box loader for ergonomic unloading of salmon boxes. The Carnitech (CT) deslimer is used for rinsing off slime, blood and bacteria from the whole salmon before processing in order to avoid potential bacterial risk during the process. Using high water pressure the fillets are thoroughly rinsed on both sides including the inside.

Intelligent Further Processing solution

Decrease labour costs – Increase yield

The new CT deheader,feeds the CT filleting machine automatically, which not only reduces labour costs but also ensures uniform infeed which in turn increases yield and filleting quality.
The Marel Intelligent Trimming machine (ITM) then trims the salmon fillets using 10 robot controlled tools. At highest capacity, it replaces 8 skilled operators in manual trimming with up to 2% higher yield and improved uniform trimming.

The four lane CT pin boner securely removes the salmon pin bones with maximum yield, minimal post pinboning and ensures a high quality end product. After pinboning the fillets are skinned on the CBF  dual lane skinner. The active skin gripper system ensures reliable and complete skinning   which enhances performance and therefore helps increase yield.   The fillets are washed by the CT fillet washer which is designed to prepare fillets prior to packing, salting or freezing.  This eliminates any impurities  or unwanted remains from the filleting, trimming and pinboning processes.  Surplus water is removed by adjustable air blowers.  The dual lane IPM3 (Intelligent Portioning Machine) is then automatically fed.  Equipped with the Cut ‘n’ Batch algorithm it automatically processes fixed weight batches that are then automatically put into trays by Marel’s Quickloader.

The dual lane concept separates left and right fillets all way through the process making automation possible. Re-aligning the product manually from one process to another is minimal.

The CT Deheader is the first to combine head and tail cutting with automatic infeed to a filleting machine.

Monitor the trimming process

This entire process is monitored by Innova Intelligent Trimming software, which collects the main key performance indicators in the trimming process.  The colour vision system of the Intelligent Trimming Machine is used for collecting quality data, such as the salmon colour histogram, melanin and bloodspot statistics.

The software also gives an indication on utilization and trimmed value of different sizes of salmon fillets. Innova intelligent portioning is used to collect portioning statistics and data for optimizing the portioning process.

Payback less than one year

Rúnar goes on to say “On a whole the solution offers processors  a labour reduction of approximately 10-14 operators which is a significant increase from earlier generations of processing solutions.” Perhaps one of the most attractive aspects to processors, of this solution is the fact that they can expect to see yield savings of up to 2%.” Due to automation and less manual handling, the processing time is much shorter. This increases the quality of the product and creates uniform products with increased shelf life because of less bacterial risk.

In summary this  solution gives a short payback and in some cases the complete payback can be expected within a year.

 “The real beauty of the concept lies in the seamless flow of the whole fish into fixed weight trays”
Rúnar Birgisson