MEET THE
ULTIMATE
TEAM
The IPPE 2018 is an official platform to showcase Foodmate’s latest developments, and this year, we are
launching the ULTIMATE Whole Leg Deboning System. The ULTIMATE is a revolutionary machine, utilizing
X-ray technology as it has never been used before in the industry. We invite you to meet the people be-
hind this masterpiece equipment. Although there is an entire team involved in developing new equipment,
Dirk Stooker and Juul van den Berg are ULTIMATE’s leading drivers, in charge of bringing the idea from
conception to a highly successful production-ready product.
THE BRAINS
BEHIND OUR
INTELLIGENT
WHOLE LEG
DEBONER, THE
ULTIMATE, GIVE
US AN INSIGHT
ON R&D AND
INDUSTRY
TRENDS
MEET DIRK STOOKER
Dirk is one of those guys that wakes-up in
the morning and tells himself while he is
preparing for the day “Yes…I’ve got an idea
and I know how it needs to look.” After he ar-
rives at work (the Foodmate R&D department),
he starts doing his thing, getting excited about gathering
materials together and to start testing his ideas. By the end of
the day, he is on a notepad designing and demonstrating his
ideas to the management team....And so, a new development
is born. Of course, it does not always work like this and it’s
obviously a much-abbreviated description of the process, be-
cause it is not as simple as it sounds. But the main point is that
at Foodmate, there is room to explore your creativity. In fact,
we encourage it!
Dirk has been in R&D for over 25 years, and with Foodmate for
the last nine years. A combination of acquired learning, crea-
tivity, and daily hands-on concept development and testing,
gives Dirk a sense of knowledge and expertise that only a few
people in the industry have today. Dirk has been the father of
some of the big success stories at Foodmate, such as the OPTI
Dark Meat Deboning Systems. Always with full passion and
dedication, Dirk never shies away from a new challenge and
always takes care of his “child” through all stages along the de-
velopment process and remains involved until the first series
of machines are rolling out to the first customers.
Dirk has one another big passion, and that is soccer. In his
young days, Dirk was a talented player and even played in
the Dutch first division. After a few years as-as a soccer player,
Dirk got involved as a trainer and coach for some local soccer
teams. And to this day, he dedicates time to strategic functions
for his local soccer team.
MEET JUUL VAN DEN BERG
Juul started his engineering career at Foodmate in 2010,
soon after graduating from the HTS (High Technical Col-
lege). From the beginning, Juul showed he had a keen
eye for new technology. Shortly after joining the Food-
mate team, Juul was transferred to the R&D department,
in a position where he could be creative and work on new
technology from an engineering point of view.
One of the first developments Juul worked on was the WTS Weigh-
ing Transfer Machine and shortly after, on the all-new buffer transfer
system. Juul has a curious mind and thinks out of the box in a way
that not many people can. Once the idea of the ULTIMATE Whole
Leg Deboner was born, we already knew that a critical element of
this new development should be the ability to measure each leg
individually. Juul and the team decided that the X-ray technology
would make a significant difference in mechanical solutions and
set an entirely new standard in whole leg deboning.
Q&A |
Given his background, Juul was responsible for the engineering
part of the ULTIMATE, from a prototype to a production ready ma-
chine. And together with a team of dedicated engineers and in
close collaboration with Dirk, a real masterpiece of intelligence got
developed.
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE
DIRECTION OF POULTRY AUTOMATION
IN THE NEXT 10 YEARS?
DIRK: The challenge…. There is so much more to
be designed and developed in this industry. We are
standing at the verge of advanced automation of
poultry equipment. When this happens the indus-
try will be more attractive to vastly larger group of
qualified personnel, who will have many opportuni-
ties to develop.
12
Juul is a young and creative engineer who can think outside of the
box. Besides being behind his desk and in his computer drafting a
new development, Juul enjoys just as much being on the floor and
working on the equipment. Juul also travels with first prototypes
that are tested in the field, to troubleshoot initial concepts and
to optimize the system. Juul is the father of two small kids, has a
broad interest in technology trends, and loves working on projects
around the house.
WE SAT WITH DIRK AND JUUL FOR A SHORT TALK AND A GOOD CUP OF COFFEE...
WHAT MAKES THE POULTRY
INDUSTRY SO ATTRACTIVE TO WORK IN?
PAGE
Juul then took it from there and started researching X-ray technol-
ogy and ways in which we could integrate this technology into a
machine. Then the next step was gathering the data from the X-ray
image and develop a software system that would process and sort
the data.
JUUL: As an engineer, I am very interested in the
technical aspect of poultry processing equipment.
Within the Poultry Industry, the technical require-
ments are very diverse, which makes it very appeal-
ing to me. The industry dictates a “clean” design and
construction, which means I get more opportunity
to think about the physical design and the technical
design of the machine and make it extra beautiful.
DIRK: In the future we will follow the automotive
industry uti