Information
In the US, the USDA (Department of Agriculture) limits the maximum poultry processing capacity to 140 birds per minute [8,400 bph]. This restriction is in place to accommodate human veterinary inspection, as it is believed that inspectors are overburdened and unable to properly assess the safety and quality of the products passing at speeds exceeding 140 bpm. However, this limitation prevents the full utilization of processing machinery, which can handle up to 250 bpm [15,000 bph]. To address this, JBT Marel developed LineSplit, a solution that divides a 250 bpm processing line after the evisceration department but before veterinary inspection.
The line is split right after the post-evisceration machines (neck processing machines, Final Inspection Machine, Inside/Outside Washer), the SmartWeigher EV weigher and the IRIS EV cameras. These systems can, just like the rest of the evisceration department, easily handle 250 bpm.
The LineSplit solution includes a regular LineLink DE transfer unit, combined with two specially developed LineLink ELS (Evisceration Line Split) transfer units. These two each take care of rehanging 50% of the offered products in the line, thereby dividing the 250 bpm evisceration line into two 125 bpm 6 inch lines. For 8 inch lines, the maximum capacity is 2x 93 bpm (1x 187 bpm).
The veterinary inspectors will now see two lines of products hanging in chilling shackles instead of evisceration shackles. Immediately after inspection, the products enter the chilling department.