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Weigher Provides Automated Solution for Fresh Meat

24/08/2009

The installation of an Ishida Fresh Food Weigher (FFW) at leading foodservice meat supplier Fairfax Meadow’s processing plant in Derby has automated the previously time-consuming and inaccurate hand weighing of diced and minced meat.

Prior to the installation of the Fresh Food Weigher, the meat had to be weighed by hand and placed into bags, which were then transferred to and emptied into the packing machine. As well as being slow and laborious, with health and safety implications owing to the repetitive nature of the task, it was necessary to over weigh into all the bags in order to compensate for any product that was lost or left in the bag during the transfer to the packing machine.

Finding an automated weighing solution was not easy due to the sticky nature of the products, which makes them difficult to handle using traditional weighing systems. The Ishida Fresh Food Weigher solves this problem with a linear multihead weigher design, fed by belts from an infeed table. Two operators are then stationed within comfortable reach of the product infeed, and adjust the flow of meat so that each pool hopper receives a roughly equal amount.

Directly beneath the pool hoppers are the weigh hoppers and below these booster hoppers, which hold product not initially selected by the computer. This frees up the weigh hoppers to accept more product and means that in calculating the best combination of hoppers whose combined weight comes closest to the target weight, the weighing machine’s computer has more combinations to choose from, enabling it to be faster and even more accurate.

For Fairfax Meadow, as well as saving labour and greatly speeding up the weighing and packing process, the accuracy of the Fresh Food Weigher is a major benefit. “With our previous system, giveaway was excessive,” explains Fairfax Meadow’s General Manager Chris Jacob. “Now, we are achieving accuracy to within 2% of target, which is excellent for these types of products, particularly considering that we are operating on minimum weight regulations, so packs cannot be below the displayed weight on the pack.”

The Ishida Fresh Food Weigher, an eight head CCW-NZ-108B-S/20-WP, is handling pack sizes from 500g to 2.5 kilos, operating in conjunction with a horizontal thermoformer. Different pack specifications are stored in the weigher’s RCU for call up at the touch of a button. A special diverting timing hopper beneath the weighing machine directs product into the three lanes of the thermoformer. Speeds range from 450 to 480 packs per hour, depending on size, but as Mr Jacob points out, “the weigher’s speed is governed by the thermoforming machine.”

Such has been the success of the installation that the Derby factory is now also packing these products for Fairfax Meadow’s sister facility in Kentish Town, London.

“We have been delighted with the performance of the Ishida Fresh Food Weigher,” concludes Mr Jacob. “It has proved to be very reliable and easy to operate, and Ishida gave us full training on day-to-day running, cleaning and maintenance, which has helped us to maximise the weigher’s effectiveness.”