Marel cuts manual handling with new portion cutter

Marel claims its latest portion cutter delivers increased automation and reduces manual handling to a greater degree than previous models at the same levels of efficiency and consistency.

The Marel I-Cut 1000 is designed for high speed, high yield portioning of a variety of fresh, boneless meat products, such as pork belly, pork neck, pork loin or beef strip loin.

The machine can deliver individual portions, well-defined stacks or shingles automatically with greater ease than other portion cutters thanks to an inclined product bed, Marel sales director Martin Baldwin told FoodProductionDaily.com.

"We have taken the tech we have successfully used in deli slicing and developed it by way of being able to slice and group portions ready to pack."

"That's really the crux of it. We have been able to further automate the processing of packs, spread slices and assemble them into the packs by machine."

One of the key benefits of that was that it was able to reduce manual handling, he explained.

The machine is easy to operate and can meet a variety of production requirements, the company said.

Product is elevated by a load assist table and manually loaded into the machine.

Checkweigher feedback

The model can be supplied with checkweigher feedback for automatic regulation of average pack weight. Real time data from the checkweigher about performance is fed back to the portion cutter, allowing adjustments to be made for optimising operating performance.

I-Cut 1000 is supplied with a number of operational modes which can be simply and easily programmed via the operator panel. These modes include yield optimisation to maximum and minimum slice thickness.

The machine has been designed for low maintenance, easy cleaning and a high level of reliability, said Marel. It added that for maximum production efficiency and minimum on-cost, additional options can be retro fitted to the model at any time.

I-Cut 1000 can operate as a standalone machine or it can be integrated into a range of manual, fixed or random weight production lines.

Marel provides equipment, systems and services to the fish, meat and poultry industries. It has offices in more than 30 countries.