More accurate product output with full Marel line

Marel is set to highlight its full meat portioning line at foodpro 2023 as automaton continues to be adopted across the food and beverage industry.

Marel’s full portioning line consists of three cutting-edge modular solutions: the I-Cut 360 portion cutter, the Product To Tray loading system and the WPL9000+ weigh price labeller. Together, they form a fluid line that adeptly manages every stage from portion cutting to packaging and labelling.

As well as this, Marel’s QC scanner will also be on display at foodpro 2023.

“This is an integrated solution for portion cutting and autoloading of portions of meat into a tray for packaging,” said Andrew Voke, Marel regional sales manager, Oceania.

“With many of our customers diversifying their businesses to include value added solutions, this kind of technology is continuing to gain more momentum. Also, for those already in this space, automating this type of process is the next step for their businesses as well.”

The full line process begins with Marel’s I-Cut 360, a high-performance anatomic portion cutter that’s ideal for retail and food service meat processors.

The I-Cut 360 portion cutter is exceptionally versatile by design, and easily handles a variety of boneless meats with no need for crust freezing, achieving cuts as thin as 3mm.

It’s also equipped with advanced software applications; it delivers superior yield and throughput to improve profitability while minimizing waste.

“The I-Cut 360 is a variation and a combination of existing technologies, and it can cope with a bit more variation in product. That is always a request from a customer, to be able to do multiple things on the one machine so there is only one spend. And that leaves more space in a facility,” said Voke.

Then there is the QC Scanner, which Voke said was another stand-alone piece from Marel which can also be integrated into an existing line, or the line being showcased at foodpro.

“The QC Scanner is another standalone piece of equipment that can be integrated into a line like this,” he said.

“The driver for this is to help customers extract more value from the same raw material by measuring certain characteristics of a steak portion such as fat colour, meat colour, fat depth, and so on.

“Then from the QC Scanner we have our Product To Tray (PTT) which is automating a solution in a factory that can be laborious. This automatically and accurately places a steak portion onto a tray ready for packaging.”

The Product To Tray (PTT) is a loading system which deposits individual and batched products gently into trays.

It switches quickly and automatically between various tray sizes, reducing labour dependency and improving product hygiene and shelf life by eliminating manual handling.

The PTT also stands out for its smooth and gentle inlay, which is especially beneficial for sensitive products.

Completing the full portioning line is the WPL9000+, a high-speed automatic weigh price labeler that can handle up to 160 packs per minute.

The WPL9000+ applies printed, self-adhesive labels to any product surface and offers a wide range of options, including multiple 1D/2D barcode formats, weighing data, clocklinked dates and product information in multiple languages.

With its small footprint and quality construction, it ensures superb performance with a low cost

“The WPL9000+ is tried and tested technology which is also easily integrated into this line,” said Voke.

Voke said the full portioning line also addressed the risk of unforeseen downtime on the processing line, a key sustainability goal for the company.

“Our service organisation helps to reduce the risk of downtime on our equipment. Whether it’s a service level agreement or a preventative maintenance scheme, Marel can tailor a package to suit,” he added.

“Marel are also on the digitalisation journey, this means our equipment will be intelligently connected to report on production results as well as loss of performance and predicted failure times.”

And as proof of this, some of the other major benefits of the full portioning line includes, distributing product streams based on quality, weight or quantity, traceable products and end, data, the best possible destination for every fillet, and maintaining fillet position on the belt

“Integration, either software or hardware, is always a key requirement from our customers,” said Voke.

“Often our customers are using multiple software platforms or integrating our hardware solutions into existing processing lines.

“It is important for Marel to consider these requests and find solutions.”

And the full portioning line being showcased at foodpro achieves exactly those goals.

“Marel provide solutions underpinned by a strong history of innovation. We invest six to seven per cent of our annual revenues into R&D, this means Marel are always bringing something new to the market,” added Voke.

Be sure to see the full portioning line for yourself at this year’s foodpro event. F