Ten years ago only one process, the carcass splitting, was automated.
Fig. 1 shows how a typical Danish clean slaughter line in
the future can be equipped with 11 automatic machines of which
8 machines are available today.
In the beginning of the automated line a series of machines will
cut the throat, loosen the fat end, divide the hind legs, open the
carcass and perform evisceration. In front of the robots is a measuring
station for measuring the size of the carcass so the robots can
adapt to the variation in carcass size.
The evisceration equipment was developed by the DMRI and
introduced a few years ago. The machine cuts the diaphragm, tears
off the leaf lards, precuts the tenderloins and loosens the intestinal
tract such that the entire set of intestines and organs are removed
from the carcass prior to separation. Because the separation takes
place outside the carcass it is performed in a more hygienic manner.
The capacity of the robots is up to 425 carcasses per hour. They
can be installed separately or as a line. The robots are supplied by
the Danish company SFK and the robots have been installed in a
number of slaughterhouses in Denmark as well as abroad.
Two machines for cutting and separation of the pluck sets into
the individual organs are also completed. One machine separates
the heart plucks into heart, lungs, wind pipe and gullet at a rate
of 1500 pluck sets per hour. The other machine separates the liver
plucks into liver and diaphragm and it operates at 425 pluck sets
per hour.
A number of other machines are being developed and when finished
and implemented the only remaining manual tasks on a
clean slaughter line will be the removal of sexual organs, separation
of viscera, trichina sampling, freeing ends of tenderloins, final
trimming and veterinarian inspection.