Wiley’s IFFA Meat Daily Top Three:
- Alginate Sausage Casing: Improves OEE by decreasing cost & time of production per SKU + opportunity for continuous production optimisation
- Ilapak DeltaRotavac: Increased operating efficiencies, reduce labour by up to 60%
- Cobotics: Cost savings in labour as a trade off against capital costs
Alginate Sausage Casing: Vemag have developed a line of machines that utilise alginate casings that can be used immediately without the costly and timely drying process of traditional casings.
Using alginate casings means retail-ready sausage manufacturers can significantly decrease the cost and time of production per SKU thereby improving OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) on sausage lines.
Alginate casings, which are produced from algae, do not pose a crossover product complication for halal products and ensures a consistent thickness of the casing. As a result, there is an opportunity for continuous production optimisation. Alginate casings are also significantly cheaper than traditional casings and the CC215 from Vemag has maximum portioning capacity of 1,800 pieces per minute, so alginate casing lines double down on reducing both cost of goods and production.
Ilapak Delta Rotavac: IFFA offers a brilliant chance for us to see what the entire world is doing in meat manufacturing and as such the new Ilapak vacuum packer piqued my interest. The automatic rotary vacuum sealing machines by Cryovac, specifically the 8600, have dominated the industry in some parts of the world.
The Ilapak Delta 6000 flow–wrapper boasts a throughput of 45 cuts per minute, matching the output of the latest 8600 models. However, where the older models of the 8600 required cuts to be bagged prior to sealing in the machine, the Delta 6000 accomplishes both; Ilapak suggests that this can reduce labour by up to 60%. Ilapak also offer in-place customisation for changes in product, meaning that any production changes can be managed in situ.
Healthy competition in this area is something that all meat manufacturers should keep an eye on, as significant production and operational benefits are likely to emerge.
Cobotics: Cobotics is a term that’s often spoken about but rarely implemented outside of Europe and the USA. Robotik-Pack-Line displayed a sample processing line using cobots. It was an impressive display which showed just how much the technology has advanced in recent years.
Cobots offer an enormous cost saving in labour. The capital costs associated with automation is dwindling rapidly. Cobots are designed with sensors that allow them to be extremely sensitive to the presence of humans and require no guarding as a result. These sensitivities can be adjusted dependent on the area of operation, the number of other operators on the line, the product being handled and other environmental conditions. This means that human operators can work side by side with them, in direct collaboration.
Working with Universal Robots, Robotik-Pack-Line offer a solution suited to any range of packing lines, or other applications. This represents an excellent opportunity to reduce labour costs for manufacturers and improve the uptake of technologies across the industry.
Source: Universal Robots website
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