Fieldale Farms, Cornelia · GA
CUSTOMER
ADVANTAGES
NEW
9 9 Can be by-passed
NEW GENERATION (NG)
THIGH AND DRUMSTICK CUTTER
The New Generation (NG) Thigh and Drumstick Cutter is a multi-purpose machine
that can be used for both retail and food service applications. Specially designed to
9 9 Straight anatomical cut
9 9 Accommodates a wide size range
9 9 Skin coverage suitable for tray packing
9 9 In line design (does not require 180 degree corner)
handle large size variations while ensuring the highest percentage of anatomical 9 9 High yields on drum, leaving kneecap intact to the thigh
cuts. It has a simple construction design that contains no rebuild points, thus reducing 9 9 Designed provide a good cut on the fat line
the cost of ownership. It provides an anatomic cut and depending on the type of
cut, various configurations are possible. The electrical sync allows for more accurate
cutting and the absence of a 90 degree gear box lowers maintenance costs.
Fieldale Farms · Cornelia, GA
“If I were to build a new plant today,
I would put as much Foodmate
equipment in as possible. Our plant
used to run almost every Saturday,
and since install we have not had to
run many Saturdays at all, this was a
huge improvement. I am extremely
pleased with the flexibility of your
service team during and post
implementation”
FOODMATE EQUIPMENT
Three (3) new Foodmate OPTI Flow Cut-up Systems on 10”centers including
ChickSort 3.0 weighing and vision grading software.
SCOPE
The scope of the project was to provide a new cut-up solution for the plant’s tray
pack operation and to be able to process 280 birds a minute while utilizing the least
amount of space. The product mix includes A-grade bag birds, whole wings, sizing
of f ronts for automated de-boning, split breast, leg quarters, whole legs and drum
Jerry Franklin, Plant Manager
Fieldale Farms, Cornelia · GA
and thighs. Fieldale was asked to develop a new process for their customer; so they
added an additional 75,000 sf on to their production plant.
between drum and thigh
OBJECTIVE
9 9 Lines speeds of 105 bpm at 12” center shackles
The main objective was to increase quality and yield and to deliver a system
and on 10” it is 125-130BPM
that required less labor than the plant’s previous system. Foodmate was able to
9 9 Line run birds from a 1.5 to 2.0 lbs. Range, giving
accomplish this with three OPTI Flow Cut Up Systems on 10”centers rather than
the traditional four lines on 12”centers approach.
up to 95% USDA “A” Grade Cuts
Foodmate and Fieldale were very dedicated to meet all of the goals of the project
and worked collaboratively towards its success.
The 10”center system was the
f irst of its kind and it allowed the plant much more productivity and throughput
capacity with only three lines in comparison to 4 conventional 12”center lines.
FINAL PRODUCT
Running the lines on 10” centers allows for more birds on the line because there
are more shackles on the line. The lines can easily process 125 birds/min but the line
speed is the same as processing 105 birds/min on 12”centers.
RESULTS
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PAGE
A quality audit was completed prior to the changeover and all quality and yield
goals were exceeded. What in particular stands out is a signif icant improvement
in split breast accuracy. The plant reports an increase in A grade cutting accuracy
f rom 80% to 99.5%. But all other cutting modules have also improved the plants’
yields and A grade pack out.
The project initially had one Wing Cutter Super Cut module but due to the big
size variation, there was still some room for improvement, so at the suggestion
of the service engineering teams at Foodmate,
Fieldale added a second Wing
Cutter Super Cut wing module as a test in one of the lines and as it worked so
well, Fieldale decided to add that second module to rest of lines. Fieldale is very
satisf ied with results, management states that there was a learning curve, but the
10” centers was a good improvement. Fieldale also reported that interaction with
Foodmate’s team members was excellent, “Throughout the project we have had
some diff icult conversations, but Foodmate’s team was very responsive, planning
and reacting immediately in the face of any issues” stated Jerry Franklin, Plant
Manager. When asked if this project caused any major improvement in their PAGE
operations, Fieldale stated a signif icant overall yield improvement and the related
lines uptime dramatically increased as the lines show no downtime.
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