Automated Chicken Deboner System with Conveyor Stations
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Solution Overview
Problem
Poultry processing plants face challenges with manual deboning, which is labor-intensive and leads to worker injuries and staffing issues, while automated deboning systems struggle to achieve the same yield as manual methods, resulting in meat loss and increased costs.
Innovation Solution
An automated chicken deboner system utilizing a conveyor belt with multiple stations for precise cutting and removal of wings, breast meat, and tenders, including a loading station, press station, skin cutter, wing cutter, scapula cutter, wishbone cutter, breast plow station, wishbone paddle station, breast removal station, and tender cutter station, to efficiently process the front-half of a chicken.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual deboning is used, then workers can achieve high meat yield from chicken carcasses, but the process requires 8-12 workers per processing line and leads to worker injuries and staffing issues
Solution Approach 1:
The automated deboning system is divided into multiple specialized stations (loading station, press station, skin cutter station, wing cutter station, scapula cutter station, wishbone cutter station, breast plow station, wishbone paddle station, breast removal station, and tender cutter station), each performing a specific function in the deboning sequence. This segmentation allows the complex deboning task to be distributed across multiple automated components rather than requiring multiple manual workers.
Solution Approach 2:
Manual mechanical operations by workers are replaced with automated mechanical systems including conveyors, presses, and specialized cutting mechanisms. The system uses automated actuators, motors, and control systems to perform cutting, separating, and removing meat from carcasses, eliminating the need for human workers to perform repetitive manual deboning tasks.
2Device complexity
If automated deboning machines are used, then the number of workers is greatly reduced, but the machines are unable to remove meat as efficiently resulting in lower yield
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions at each station to prepare the carcass for subsequent operations. The press station aligns and secures the carcass before cutting, the skin cutter removes skin and fat to expose meat, and each cutting station makes preliminary incisions to facilitate complete meat removal. This sequential preliminary preparation ensures maximum meat yield by properly positioning and preparing the carcass at each stage.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs multiple cutting angles, depths, and forces at different stations to optimize meat removal. The scapula cutter, wishbone cutter, and breast plow use varying mechanical parameters to separate different types of tissue and bone structures. By adjusting cutting parameters at each station based on the specific anatomical features being processed, the system achieves high meat yield comparable to or exceeding manual deboning.
3Device complexity
If automated deboning machines are used, then labor costs are reduced, but meat is left behind on chicken carcasses resulting in profit losses
Solution Approach 1:
The deboning process operates continuously through multiple stations without interruption. The conveyor system moves carcasses sequentially through each cutting and removal station, ensuring that meat removal is a continuous, uninterrupted process. This continuity prevents gaps in the deboning action that would leave meat behind, as each station builds upon the previous station's work to completely remove all valuable meat from the carcass.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses intermediate tools and mechanisms between the initial carcass input and final meat output. Specialized cutting blades, separating paddles, and removal mechanisms act as intermediaries to progressively detach and remove meat from the carcass structure. These intermediary tools ensure complete meat removal by addressing different attachment points and tissue types that a single tool could not handle alone.
Data Source
AI summary
A support for carrying a front-half of a chicken through a deboning process, including an upper portion, a lower portion, and a base for attaching to a conveyor belt. The upper portion includes a first shelf and a second shelf for resting under the shoulder knuckles of the front-half of the chicken and a protrusion positioned between the first shelf and the second shelf for spreading the shoulder knuckles. The lower portion of the support has two sections for resting under the breast meat of the front-half of the chicken. The first section of the lower portion of the support slopes downward and outward from the upper portion, while the second section of the lower portion slopes downward and inward from the first section.