Page 21 - AWA Vol.41-No.9 issue

FOOD STORAGE

Empowering Meat Processing with 3D Line Laser Measuring

Instrument & Non-Contact Surface Measurement

In recent years, with the develop- A certain university's College of
ment of the meat processing industry Agriculture, responding to the "In-
and the transformation and upgrad- telligent Meat Processing" project
ing of traditional meat processing and aiming to research intelligent
operations, more and meat process- meat processing technology, sought
ing plants are shifting from traditional to develop an intelligent portioning
manual cutting to intelligent meat cut- machine. This required topography
ting equipment, leading to increasing analysis of the meat to be cut. The to-
demand for intelligent cutting ma- pography information would be trans-
chines. two categories: manual cutting and mitted to the cutter to guide precise
I. Scenarios Requiring Meat Cut- machine portioning. cutting with the tool, thereby achiev-
ting 1. Manual Cutting: Hiring profes- ing intelligent meat processing. Upon
China's meat industry chain is di- sional butchers for manual segmenta- receiving the inspection requirement,
vided into upstream, midstream, and tion and portioning. An experienced Atometrics used the 3D Line Laser
butcher can debone and segment
downstream sectors. The upstream a whole pig weighing over 50 kg in Measuring Instrument AR-7250 to
primarily consists of farms, the mid- about 6 minutes. perform topography inspection on
stream mainly includes slaughter- sample pork:
houses and processing plants, and 2. Machine Portioning: There are After receiving the inspection results
the downstream primarily comprises various types of meat portioning ma- and proposal, the university profes-
wholesalers, retailers, and food pro- chines available on the market, such sors praised the measurement accu-
cessing plants. Among these, slaugh- as frozen meat cutters, meat slicers, racy and precision of the Line Laser
terhouses, processing plants, retail- bone cutters, de-skinners, etc. Measuring Instrument AR-7250, and
ers, and food processing plants are III. Advantages of Unmanned In- also expressed great appreciation
the main entities that need to cut and telligent Cutting for Atometrics's contribution to the
portion meat. development of intelligent meat pro-
1. Better Meat Quality: Compared
1. Slaughterhouses and Processing to manual cutting, intelligent cutters cessing. Atometrics is consistently
Plants offer precise cuts and clean separa- committed to supporting technologi-
In slaughterhouses and processing tion in a single stroke, eliminating the cal iteration and upgrade across vari-
plants, meat is typically processed need for repeated sawing. This effec- ous industries. Therefore, we are hon-
differently based on various customer tively preserves the appearance and ored to participate in this university's
requirements. Some only require the integrity of the meat, thereby reduc- scientific research project on modern
meat to be segmented by part, usual- ing customer complaints. meat processing technology. Atomet-
ly performed by professional butch- 2. Accurate Portioning: Depending rics believes: Intelligent Technology
ers. Others require specific cuts of on different cutting requirements, it Leads the Future.
raw meat to be portioned into pieces ensures consistent shape/thickness/ The Atometrics 3D Line Laser Mea-
of a certain weight, where intelligent weight for each portioned product, suring Instrument AR-7000 Series is
portioning machines can be used for reducing raw material waste, improv- a non-contact surface measurement
efficient and precise cutting. ing utilization rate, and thus saving on device based on laser technology. It
2. Retail material costs. utilizes a high-brightness, long-life
In the retail sector, meat is generally 3. Reduced Labor Costs and In- light source to project a laser line of
sold by part. In some premium super- creased Output Efficiency: Un- a specific wavelength. When this la-
markets, there is also a requirement manned operation can eliminate the ser line strikes the measured sample,
for meat from the same part to be cut need for multiple personnel, requir- reflected light is formed. Only light
into pieces of the same thickness or ing only a few operators for the intel- of the corresponding wavelength can
weight before packaging and sale, ligent cutting machines. Furthermore, pass through the ultra-high-defini-
such as thinly sliced fatty beef rolls, compared to manual cutting, machine tion transparent optical glass and be
lamb chops, selected pork ribs, etc. cutting is faster and more accurate, received by the instrument. The in-
3. Food Processing Plants thereby enhancing output efficiency. strument receives this reflected opti-
cal signal, and after data processing,
In food processing plants, depend- 4. Clean, Hygienic, and Contami- obtains point cloud data of the sam-
ing on the processing requirements of nation-Free: Utilizing unmanned op- ple, enabling inspection of contour,
different products, meat is generally eration helps isolate contamination defects, flatness, evenness, height
cut into pieces of a specific weight or sources from the outset, ensuring a difference, etc. The Atometrics 3D
thickness before subsequent process- clean, hygienic, and germ-free pro- Line Laser Measuring Instrument AR-
ing, such as for snacks like beef jerky duction environment. 7000 Series employs 3,840 points per
or chicken breast. IV. 3D Line Laser Measuring In- profile, allowing for detailed repre-
II. Methods for Cutting Meat strument Meat Topography, En- sentation of product topography and
Currently, meat cutting and process- abling Precise Cutting with the Por- significantly improving image quality
ing methods are mainly divided into tioning Machine and fineness Circle 25 on enquiry card

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